The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime of their first Summer League game. For Lonzo Ball, his debut didn’t go so well.
Coming into the Las Vegas Summer League, all eyes were on the new Los Angeles Lakers point guard, Lonzo Ball. After a lot of talk leading up to the 2017 NBA Draft, the Lakers did end up take Ball with the second overall pick.
Since being drafted, Ball has been very humble and has said all of the right things. Despite his age, he wants to be a leader for this young group of Lakers on the court. At UCLA, Ball was a great floor general, and that is something that will certainly translate to the NBA.
In addition to being a great floor general in college, Ball also shot the basketball very well from beyond the arc. Even with a strange shooting motion, Ball shot over 40 percent from deep in college.
With a lot of hype surrounding him in his first game, Ball did not have a great debut for the Lakers. To start, it looked like things were going to be great. Ball was able to find Brandon Ingram on an alley-oop. The explosive play got the crowd in Las Vegas going, and that play will certainly be one Lakers fans see for years to come.
THIS WILL BE FUN! Lonzo to Ingram! #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/aAbHxsNr5S
— Lake Show Life (@TheLakeShowLife) July 8, 2017
However, things went downhill from there for Ball. In the loss, he totaled five points, five assists, five rebounds, two steals, and one block in 32 minutes. What really made it a tough debut for Ball was the shooting stats. Ball shot just 1-for-11 from three-point range, and 2-for-15 overall. There were a few late in the clock chucks by Ball to avoid shot clock violations, but he certainly didn’t shoot the ball well on Friday night.
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Since this was Ball’s first game action since the loss to Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, seeing some rust should come as no surprise. Even though expectations for the Lakers and Ball were high, his poor game isn’t a big deal. With a game coming on Saturday against the Boston Celtics, expect to see Ball bounce back from the poor debut.