Getty Joe Young of the Indiana Pacers launches into the air.
After an embarrassing Summer League debut that saw them get blown out by the Miami Heat, the Lakers look to bounce back against the Golden State Warriors in their second game of the California Classic. Serving as a tune-up for the Las Vegas Summer League, the Lakers need to make a heap of adjustments after an extremely poor showing as a whole against the Heat.
After starting off the game on a blistering run, the Lakers proved unable to score once the game slowed down. Summer League defense is notoriously bad but the Lakers took that to the next level allowing the Heat to shoot a blistering 50.7/51.7 from the field. While the 51% from deep was an anomaly, the Lakers were outhustled throughout and were dominated on the boards and the interior.
One of the lone bright spots from the Lakers’ otherwise embarrassing performance was Rosco Allen. Allen looked impressive in his 2019 Summer League debut and likely earned himself considerably more playing time, if not potentially a starting spot moving forward. Allen had an efficient night from the field and made a number of high IQ defensive plays in his brief showing. Expect him to start regularly seeing north of 20 minutes per game in the Summer League and if he continues his strong play, a roster spot on the regular season squad could be in the cards.
Lakers’ California Classic Summer League Roster & Starting Lineup vs. Warriors
LAL starters for CA Classic Game 2: Joe Young, Dakota Mathias, Zach Norvell, Rosco Allen and Nick Perkins. LAL take on Golden State’s summer league squad at 6 p.m. on @SpectrumSN.
*Denotes Starter
PG: Joe Young*, Marcus Allen, Conner Frankamp, Codi Miller-McIntyre
SG: Dakota Mathias*, Jaron Johnson, Talen Horton-Tucker (expected to not play)
SF: Zach Norvell Jr.*, Jeffrey Carroll
PF: Rosco Allen*, Jordan Caroline, Aric Holman
C: Nick Perkins*, Devontae Cacok
Lakers vs. Warriors California Classic Summer League Preview
The Warriors are also coming off a loss in their California Classic opener, though they kept things much closer against the Sacramento Kings. Second-year player Jacob Evans showed why experience matters in the Summer League as he led the Warriors in scoring and held a share of the lead in rebounding and assists on the night. Unfortunately, his efficient stat-stuffing night wasn’t enough to overcome a talented Kings Summer League team.
The Lakers will need to find a way to slow down Evans and wake up their own Joe Young. Young has been a prolific scorer at every level (except the actual NBA) and is coming off a dominant showing in the CBA. He has summer league and actual NBA experience giving him a leg up on the vast majority of his competition yet was tentative and ineffective in his first game – perhaps a product of trying TOO hard to get others involved. Given his skill set, the Lakers’ best shot at winning comes if they feed the volume scorer known as “Joe Buckets” the rock early and often.
Mental mistakes are to be expected in Summer League, especially in the California Classic which is viewed as more of a tune-up for the more prestigious Vegas Summer League. However, the Lakers squad made FAR too many sloppy mistakes even for Summer League standards and will need to do a better job of keeping their cool. They looked like a much better team once the game was out of reach and the pressure was off, indicating that they implosion they suffered was most likely a mental – not a talent – issue.
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