Scotty Pippen Jr. shows he belongs in NBA in Lakers summer league win
By Ronald Agers
Golden State provided better competition for the Los Angeles Lakers which is a really good thing!
Sure the Los Angeles Lakers ran 100 points in back-to-back games, but there is a difference between the Heat and the Warriors. Miami just did not have the talent to even compete with the Lake Show on Saturday. The South Bay Lakers bunch almost had them thinking about another career outside of basketball at times, especially after the first five minutes of the game.
Against the Golden State Warriors, they did have formidable talent on their roster featuring former first-round pick, Moses Moody who is definitely in the franchise’s plans for the future. Lester Quinones looked like a good player leading the Warriors with 19 points. However, you could see the Lakers imposing their will on Golden State after the first quarter. The defense on this squad is real.
The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:
The Los Angeles Lakers went to the free-throw line (A lot!) and knocked them down (A lot!)…
The regular roster is not going to be able to get away with a lot of things with Phil Handy on the bench this season. Man, it took a while to remember the last time a Los Angeles Lakers hit 21-25 from the free-throw line. This stat right here was the story of the game. The Lake Show attacked the basket and drew foul after foul. Then they stepped to the line with confidence and sank free throws.
To put this in perspective, the Lakers knocked down the same amount of free throws as the Warriors took OVERALL!
The Lakers destroyed the Warriors on the boards!
The Lake Show outrebounded Golden State 42-26 and if you watched the game it looked like it was 400-26. The physicality that produced free throws kept the Warriors off the boards. Couple this aspect of the game with the Lakers shooting 50.7 percent from the field and over 40 percent from beyond the arc, and it’s easy to see why this team is scoring in triple digits in only 40 minutes.
Man…
https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1543765435027300353
We’re going to analyze Scotty Pippen Jr.’s overall game shortly, but this dude right here is going to mess around and find himself in the same position Austin Reaves was last year if he’s not careful. Watching the floor and reading the defense on the drive with the sweet dish shows the maturity of running an offense set and getting his teammates involved. This is not the only smooth pass Pippen Jr. had but we’ll get to that in a bit.
The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win (Boy are we nitpicking here…AGAIN!!!):
The turnovers:
This really wouldn’t matter if it was the young players like Pippen Jr., Cole Swider or Max Christie. But when half of the 16 turnovers come from two players that spent last year with the South Bay Lakers, that won’t cut it.
The current progress up to this point:
Lakers Nation gets to see how the defense matches up against featured offensive players!
The Lakers take on the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday afternoon at 5:30 EST. The Kings will feature their No. 4 overall pick, Keegan Murray who dropped 26 points and eight rebounds in Sacramento’s victory over these Warriors on Saturday 86-68. His shot looked good, knocking down 10-14 shots from the field which included 4-5 from the land of the extra point.
Based on the hounding defense the Lakers put on Moses Moody (9 points and one rebound), look for the same on Tuesday.
Enough with the general aspects of the game, hit the purple bar and let’s take a look at how the South Bay bunch looked in this game!