There's a little insanity in every person who makes a yearly trek to Las Vegas to watch low-quality basketball. This afternoon's contest was the peak of the worst of summer league all wrapped into one incomprehensible two hour stretch. For anyone who sat through, either on television or in person, the activity of ten people on a wooden court attempting beyond comprehension to play a game of basketball today entirely needs an intervention.
Top draft pick Jahlil Okafor missed the game to attend the ESPY awards live tonight. That should say enough to not watch. But yet some of you did, and I did, and Jake Pavorsky did, and like 1,500 in the Thomas & Mack Center did. And that's crazy. We're all crazy. Summer League Playoffs.
Let's just go right to the game notes.
Summer Six(ers) Notes:
1. While attempting to find an acceptable narrative to guide a game recap for this abomination, the only one we could figure out was a battle of ex-Arizona players in T.J. McConnell and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Unfortunately, the two were barely matched up and between them there wasn't much going on. Rondae's defense is still very fun, his shot still very bad.
2. Scottie Wilbekin led the way with a paltry 11 points, the only Sixer in double figures, and it took 15 mostly ill-conceived shots to get there. Wilbekin, who shot the ball extremely well on Tuesday, struggled as the key offensive piece for an NBA summer league team, which isn't exactly surprising. Newly signed point guard Pierre Jackson returned to action with nine points on nine shots.
3. The operations people at the Thomas & Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas make sure that everything is as cold as can possibly be. I wore long sleeves and jeans to combat it and yet I've still got chills. It doesn't need to be freezing just because it's extremely warm outside.
4. I tried thinking of one and realized don't have a fourth point. Hmm. Okay the final score was 75-68. There.
5. Per the NBA hustle stat sheet, in an upset Arsalan Kazemi did not lead the team in hustle points today. That ended up being Vince Hunter, who made a slight impact for the first time in Las Vegas with six rebounds in 17 minutes. See below for full report.
Today's hustle stats pic.twitter.com/8rAJVm9KB5
— Sean O'Connor (@soconnor76) July 15, 2015
And the Nets pic.twitter.com/Qdfjwi1vmP
— Sean O'Connor (@soconnor76) July 15, 2015
6. Because of the loss, the Sixers will play in a consolation game on Friday at 4:00 EDT at the Cox Pavilion, after which summer league will mercifully end.