Friday, July 11, 2008

Orlando NBA Summer League - Day 5


Day 5 is the final day of the Orlando NBA Summer League, but the Las Vegas NBA Summer League starts today at 4, so I will now be covering that up until the 20th. Here are the boxscores along with a rundown so far from the Orlando NBA Summer League:

(Links for previous days at the bottom)

Game 1 Boxscore: New Jersey Nets 107 Indiana Pacers 99

Notables:

Chris Douglas-Roberts, NJ: 15 points, 2-5 FG, 11-11 FT, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 6 turnovers
Brook Lopez, NJ: 25 points, 8-13 FG, 4 rebounds, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 7 fouls
Ryan Anderson, NJ: 20 points, 4-12 FG, 3-5 3FG, 9-9 FT, 5 rebounds, 1 steal
Jaycee Carroll, NJ: 11 points, 5-11 FG, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers
Sean Williams, NJ: 8 points, 3-9 FG, 4 rebounds, 2 steals

Stanley Burrell, IND: 0 points, 0-1 FG

Comments: The Nets rookies finished strong at the Orlando Summer League and were impressive all week. Ryan Anderson finished 11-27 on 3-Pointers, good for 40.7%. Brook Lopez impressed with his offensive game, averaging 19.6 points on 60.0% shooting. I'm intrigued to see how he is able to score against NBA quality Centers now that he has dominated the Summer League. It still looks like he will have rebounding and defensive issues though, as he averaged only 4.8 rebounds a game and also comitted about 5 fouls a game. Chris Douglas-Roberts finished with a decent summer league performance averaging 14.0 points on a solid 48.8% shooting. Jaycee Carroll certainly helped his chance of making an NBA roster by averaging 13.6 points on 47.6% shooting. He did however only attempt 4 three-pointers which is curious since he was such a deadly three-point shooter in college.

Game 2 Boxscore: Oklahoma City 86 Chicago Bulls 73

Notables:

Derrick Rose, CHI: DNP
Demetris Nichols, CHI: 13 points, 4-9 FG, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
Tyrus Thomas, CHI: DNP
Joakim Noah, CHI: 3 points, 0-0 FG, 3 rebounds, 1 block
Will Daniels, CHI: 2 points, 1-6 FG, 1 rebound

Jeff Green, OK: DNP
Russell Westbrook, OK: DNP
D.J. White, OK: 20 points, 9-15 FG, 7 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal

Comments: Russell Westbrook was the talk of summer camp all week and he finished with 16.5 points a game on 50.0% shooting and just 6 turnovers in 4 games. D.J. White had a solid summer league finishing with 10.4 points on 53.5% shooting and 5.4 rebounds a game. Jeff Green averaged 22.8 points a game but that is to be expected from someone who was a regular in the NBA last season. Derrick Rose has a disappointing and unproductive summer league, especially since he was only able to play in 2 games. He finished averaging 9.5 points on 29.4% shooting, 4.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.0 steals, and 4.0 turnovers. Tyrus Thomas had a strong summer league finishing with 18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks a game.

Game 3 Boxscore: Orlando Magic 74 Miami Heat 69
Notables:

Michael Beasley, MIA: 25 points, 8-19 FG, 8 rebounds, 4 turnovers
Kasib Powell, MIA: 10 points, 5-11 FG, 2 rebounds
Josh Duncan, MIA: DNP
Mario Chalmers, MIA: 15 points, 3-9 FG, 8-10 FT, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers
Pat Calathes, MIA: DNP
David Padgett, MIA: 4 points, 0-2 FG, 6 rebounds

Courtney Lee, ORL: 30 points, 9-21 FG, 12-13 FT, 5 rebounds, 1 block
Brian Roberts, ORL: DNP
Mark Tyndale, ORL: DNP

Comments: Courtney Lee caps off a strong summer league with a monster 30 point game. He finishes averaging 20.2 points on 43.7& shooting. Beasley finishes off his summer league on a high note as well with 25 points. Overall, Beasley averaged 19.6 points and 7.4 rebounds, but he did only shoot 38.3% from the floor. Mario Chalmers finishes with averages of 15.8 points, 5.4 assists, and 2.0 steals, not bad at all. Solid efforts from all three of these rookies in the summer league.

Here is some more coverage from Day 4 of the Orlando Summer League:

Russell Westbrook: For all those raised eyebrows and puzzled experts who questioned Russell Westbrook's being chosen fourth overall in last month's NBA draft, a scout monitoring the Orlando Pro Summer League had this to offer Thursday: "He's flat-out the best player here not named Kevin Durant." "At summer league, you tell yourself to wait on praising a kid because there aren't a lot of NBA players here, but what he's done is really impressive," Carlesimo said. "I don't think he's going to be a good player; I think he's going to be an excellent player. With young guys, the timetable is always uncertain. But it's not a question of if he's going to be great, but when. We just have to keep surrounding him with great players." Through four games, Westbrook has averaged 16.5 points on 50 percent shooting and 36 percent shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. He has 14 assists and seven steals compared with just six turnovers. Finally, he hopes he has cleared up some of the doubts about how he became a top-five pick. "I've worked so hard to put myself in the position that I, am and it's surprising to me that people are questioning why I was picked so high," Westbrook said earlier in the week. "But here I am. To me, being the No. 4 pick means nothing because I'm starting all over again trying to show what I can do." (ESPN)

Michael Beasley: ''Everybody wants to beat up on the rookie -- I mean everybody,'' Beasley said. "It's a rough game. I think I've got more bruises and cuts these few games than in my whole basketball career. I got [ice packs] lined up in my [hotel] refrigerator, ready to go. [But] I'm always going to bang. I can always take a hit.'' ''It's a major difference,'' Orlando Magic assistant and Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing said. "But he's a very talented player, and if he comes out and plays hard every night, he's going to be fine. He's young.'' Beasley has enough talent to adjust to any style of play, Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird said. "Offensively, he's so smooth, with such great body control, that he has the skills to eliminate a lot of that banging that goes on," Bird said. "He'll get beat up pretty well guarding guys, but he's going to do very well in our league.'' ''He's 19 years old, and he's out there playing against guys who are 23, 24, 25 years old, trying to make it in this league,'' Heat summer-league coach Keith Askins said. "And the way you make it in this league is show you can defend the No. 2 player in this draft.'' (Miami Herald)

Derrick Rose: "It's just tendinitis and nothing, like, super bad [wrong] with the knee," he said after Chicago's 84-68 loss to New Jersey in the Orlando Pro Summer League. "They say it keeps happening because I'm young and my legs aren't strong enough and they have to work on my legs." Rose made his professional debut Monday against the second overall pick, Miami's Michael Beasley, and struggled through a 10-point, 5-turnover game. He played better Tuesday, with 9 points, 7 assists and 3 steals, but aggravated the existing soreness in the knee with an awkward landing on a jump-stop drive in the lane. "That triggered it because I put all of that pressure on it," Rose said. "I tried it [Wednesday], and I was like, 'Man, it's not ready yet.'" In two games, Rose made just 5 of 17 shots and had 8 turnovers to go with his 11 assists. (ESPN)

Brook Lopez: Lost in all of the hype surrounding top picks Rose, Michael Beasley (19 points, two 3-pointers and five rebounds Thursday) and Westbrook this week has been the steady, promising play of rookie New Jersey center Brook Lopez. The 7-footer from Stanford, the 10th pick in the draft, has improved his scoring and his comfort in the low post in each of his four games this week. He had 10 points Monday against Orlando, 18 on Tuesday versus Miami, 22 more against Oklahoma City on Wednesday and another 23 on Thursday against Chicago's Aaron Gray and Joakim Noah. "I just want to come out each game and play better than I did before to show everything that I've learned," said Lopez, who has scored (18.3 ppg) much better than he has rebounded (5.0 rpg) this week. "Overall, I was better at stopping drives down the lane today than I've been. I feel like my looks will come and I'm just trying to pick it up defensively." Lopez, all 260 pounds of him, also has shown the ability to step away from the basket and bury the 20-foot jump shot. His first move in the post is often to face the basket because of his comfort in knocking down the jump shot. "I feel perfectly fine taking those shots," he said. "I put a lot of them up in practice, so I'm comfortable taking them in the game." (ESPN)


Orlando NBA Summer League:
Orlando NBA Summer League - Day 1
Orlando NBA Summer League - Day 2
Orlando NBA Summer League - Day 3
Orlando NBA Summer League - Day 4

More: NBA Summer League
& Las Vegas NBA Summer League & Utah Summer League

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