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What a difference a day makes, Kawhi Leonard is a Clipper, Zion Williamson gets a summer vacation, Brandon Clarke isn’t officially a Grizzly yet, Zach Norvell Jr. gets a day off and last night’s games were stopped because of an earthquake.
As a preface, catching the tail end of the Hawks/Bucks game, I saw three things of possible interest to Zag fans. The first was Jock Landale running the court for a dunk to put the Bucks ahead. After leaving St. Mary’s, Landale played last season at Belgrade, Serbia’s KK Partizan, the team Nigel William-Goss starred at the previous season. Landale had a big 2nd half contibuting to the Bucks win. I then saw Atlanta’s Summer League Coach was Greg Foster who I assume canceled his Root Sports cable package. Lastly, former BYU big Elijah Bryant, who last year played for Hapoel Eilat in Israel, played 19 minutes for the Bucks.
Memphis Grizzlies 101 Indiana Pacers 75
According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Grizzlies SBNation page Grizzly Bear Blues, July 6th was the day Brandon Clarke’s trade from Oklahoma City was to be finalized making eligible to play in the Summer League. About 45 minutes before game time, CBS sports reported Clarke would not play because the NBA is still finalizing trades. He may play in tomorrow’s game against Clippers starting at 8:30 p.m. (PDT) on ESPN 2.
Clippers 93 Lakers 87
Zach Norvell Jr. was given a well-deserved night off as the Lakers made a contest out of a game that appeared to be a blow out in the first quarter.
Late last night, Kawhi Leonard committed to the Clippers forcing the Lakers to immediately execute their Plan B and sign a roster of free agents including Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, JaVale McGee, Quinn Cook, DeMarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo. On the bright side for Snacks, prior to the game ESPNU showed a potential 12-man regular season Lakers rosters and he was included as one of the guards. Unfortunately, JWIII’s name wasn’t included. The next Lakers game will be Monday, July 8 against the Golden State Warriors at 8:30 p.m. (PDT) on NBA TV.
Wizards 84 Pelicans 79
Well the Rui vs. Zion match-up was a no-go as the Pelicans front office announced today Williamson would sit for the rest of the Summer League games after bruising his knee in last night’s contest.
Rui played a team high 33 minutes and while he didn’t he didn’t scorch the stat sheet (14 points on 6 for 16 shooting, 5 rebounds, two blocks and an assist), he had several highlights. Both his blocks were spectacular, he had a great alley-oop dunk as his new coach Scott Brooks was being interviewed and scored 4 of his team’s last six points including grabbing the game clinching rebound, getting fouled then converting two game ending free throws.
Several of Rui’s shots were in-and-out and he could have easily had six to eight more points. He never looked over-matched, just a little rusty. Washington’s next game is against Brooklyn on Monday, 8 July at 2 p.m. (PDT) on NBA TV.
One final note, today is Zion Williamson’s 19th birthday, meaning, be ready older guys, he was born in the year 2000.