Las Vegas Summer League Recap: Day 7

Here's a quick recap of each of the games I was able to catch:

Cleveland Cavaliers 72, San Antonio Spurs 66

I have a full game recap here, but the short version goes like this. The Spurs didn't play well, except for Marcus Denmon and kinda, sorta Aron Baynes. The Cavaliers were quite good, especially Dion Waiters and kinda, sorta Tyler Zeller. No matter who was winning there were awesome children cheering in the stands. This loss means the Spurs will play the Milwaukee Bucks in a consolation game on Friday at 7:00 PM. The End.

Toronto Raptors 95, Denver Nuggets 78

Without a doubt, the story of this game was Dwight Buycks. After inking a 3 year deal on Wednesday to become a backup point guard with the Raptors, he put on a show for their summer league squad. The 24 year old out of Marquette had 18 points on 6-11 shooting, and handed out 10 assists for a double-double. Jonas Valanciunas also had a great game, scoring 15 points on 5-7 shooting, including a tidy 5-6 from the line. He also had 12 total rebounds, and protected the paint well, featuring a brutal block on a layup attempt by Quincy Miller. For the Nuggets, their best player was Jordan Hamilton again, who had 24 points on 10-21 shooting, including 4-10 from three. Unfortunately, no one else contributed much, and the Nuggets fell behind in the second quarter and weren't able to mount any kind of comeback.

Phoenix Suns 92, Portland Trail Blazers 84

For those who remember the part of the Day 7 Preview where I said I was going to "ride the Portland Trail Blazers until the wheels fall off"? Well, they fell off. Seriously, I should stop making predictions in these daily previews because i'm never right. I'm like a stereotypical weatherman who calls for a week's worth of sunny weather and a record breaking downpour immediately floods the area. Anyways, the Blazers had a similar fate to the Nuggets: getting down early and struggling to come back. Even their high-scorers for the night struggled, as both C.J. McCollum and Will Barton (22 points and 21 points, respectively) could barely manage a point per shot -- inefficient basketball to be sure. The Suns had a balanced attack, led by Markieff Morris, Dionte Christmas, and Dionte Garrett. Morris and Christmas both had 15 points on 5-9 shooting, and Garrett had 14 on 6-10.

Golden State Warriors 79, Dallas Mavericks 76

Yeah, so up to about mid-way through the fourth quarter, this game was relatively boring. It wasn't bad basketball, it just wasn't really exciting. Dallas had a commanding lead in the fourth. Then, Kent Bazemore got a technical with about four minutes left. It seemed like everything was over for the Warriors, who were down 74-62. And then Kent Bazemore SKIED ABOVE THE PLEBIANS AND DUNKED THE BALL with the power of everything in this world that is good and pure and now I'm filled with pity and empathy for the wounded pride of Jackie Carmichael.

Yeah, it was kind of a big deal.

That dunk sparked a 17-2 run to end the game. Golden State turned up their defensive intensity high enough to match what you'd expect to see in the 4th quarter of a tight NBA game. Jackie Carmichael was the only Maverick who would score in that time, a layup to got Dallas' lead to 3 with 49 seconds left. The warriors kept attacking, then took the lead on a powerful dunk from Dwyane Jones on an offensive rebound. After that, they forced a miss from Ricky Ledo at the other end, and that's all she wrote.

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Friday is the consolation round of the tournament, and I'll be there to check it out once more. Although it's a consolation round, and the games mean nothing, it's summer league! So, the games never meant anything in the first place. But, there are some cool match-ups, like Spurs/Bucks, that I am excited for. Hopefully you all are just as ready as I am.