Welcome in to the first edition of the Impressions posts of the Lakers' Summer League 2017 campaign. This idea stemmed from my
Summer League thoughts from last year when I uploaded "The Successors" Lakers hype video. The Lakers couldn't get the win today as they fell to the Clippers 96-93 in OT. Here are some of my impressions. This will follow a three headline limit followed by a conclusion.
Brandon Ingram is a Beast
Summer League stats are gonna be hard to come by since they're not the real NBA games. But, on the Lakers' headline, Ingram racked up 26 points, leading all Lakers in scoring. It's an old cliche, but what a difference a year makes for Ingram! Confidence was an issue in his rookie season, but he is embracing the role of taking up the mantle for the Lakers. I thought I was watching Kevin Durant with the way Ingram performed tonight. Don't let his body frame fool you. He looked strong to the basket tonight and whipped out a couple of nice moves down the stretch. He had a little scare at the end of regulation, going down on his leg. But, it was nothing minor and because of precautionary measures, Magic signaled Jud Buelcher to take Ingram out of the game. As much as the Lakers wanted a victory, it was a good call. You don't want to injure your star player-in-the-making in a meaningless Summer League game. But overall, impressive game from Ingram.
Lonzo Ball - Showed Flashes, But Not Good Enough
"Your just jinxed Lonzo Ball by uploading your
highlight video hours before tip-off!" First off, there will be good days and there will be bad days. I'll just leave it at that. Tonight was definitely a bad day for Lonzo shooting-wise, going 2-15 from the field and 1-11 from beyond the arc. The silver lining about his debut is that we saw the court vision that he advertised in UCLA. First play of the game, the alley oop to Brandon Ingram set the tone that he's gonna get his teammates involved early on. And that alley oop is one out of many more to come from that duo. Another observation is that players are alert when Lonzo's on the floor. When he has the ball in his hands on the open court, he's gonna put a lot of heat on his passing. So, I liked that he had players on high alert. He's a pass first guy as advertised, but maybe a little too passive in his debut tonight. There were some sequences down the stretch where he could've gone strong to the hole, but he passed up on the shots that were given to him. The missed three pointers were unfortunate. My brother and I were groaning on the TV during OT as Ball was hitting nothing, but rim. He's capable of hitting the NBA range three, but just a rough outing from Ball tonight.
2nd Round Steal Alert: Thomas Bryant
What a game for the 2nd round pick! 13 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. I am beyond impressed with the hustle and energy I saw from Thomas Bryant. He is as advertised in what I got out of his game relating to the fact that he's a rim rocker and he's a big that can shoot the three. Going back to his hustle and energy, he never released his foot off the gas the whole game. Scoring, giving the Lakers 2nd chance opportunities on the boards, I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be a fan favorite. His performance tonight could earn him that spot.
Conclusion
Overall, I liked what I saw from the Summer League squad tonight. Despite the loss, we saw a lot of potential flashed on that court. We just need to see a little more assertiveness from key players. Yes, Lonzo Ball included. But, this is something you expect out of rookies. Brandon Ingram went through the same process last year, getting a feel of the game. Ball is doing the same. We just have to exhale that this is not a regular season NBA game. At the same time, expectations will be leveled down a little bit after tonight. The Lakers are back in action again tomorrow night against the Celtics. Even though it's a summer league game, Lakers-Celtics is always a hot ticket. Let's see how tonight's performance from the players carry over to tomorrow off back-to-back sets.
