After a strong showing in the Las Vegas Summer League opener, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to keep that momentum going on Saturday night when they took on the Dallas Mavericks at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Unfortunately, Lakers first-round draft pick Cameron Carr, who has been a standout to begin the summer, was ruled out of this one with a right thumb contusion. That didn’t make a difference though as the Lakers pulled away in the second half to stay undefeated in Las Vegas with a 91-70 victory.
Without Carr in the lineup, the Lakers offense struggled early as the Mavericks jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Adou Thiero got his team on the board with a three-point play.
The Lakers got going from there as Arthur Kaluma had a nice finish inside and then Jon Elmore hit a 3-pointer. Peter Suder got involved with a three-point play and L.A. led 21-19 at the end of the first quarter.
Kaluma was in attack mode early in the second quarter, earning some tough buckets and trips to the free throw line. Chris Mañon then made his presence felt with a layup, a steal and then a lob to Thiero. Kaluma led the Lakers with 18 points in the first half, but the Mavericks beat the buzzer with a triple to cut their deficit to 47-44 at the half.
Kaluma continued his dominance into the third quarter as he was scoring from everywhere on the court. Suder also got hot with back-to-back triples as the Lakers opened up a double digit lead going into the fourth quarter at 67-57.
The fourth quarter was more of the same as Kaluma hit another pair of triples, and Suder connected as well. It was the best game of the summer by far for Suder as he also took a charge, which was great to see. Thiero also finished strong with a crafty layup and a dunk in transition.
L.A. had no issues closing out the easy win while Kaluma continued to dominate, making his case for a two-way contract with the Lakers or elsewhere. He wound up leading all scorers with 34 points to go along with five rebounds on 11-of-16 shooting and 6-of-10 from deep.
If the Lakers can keep stacking up wins, then they will have a chance to compete for the Las Vegas Summer League championship.
Lakers Las Vegas Summer League schedule & TV info
Tuesday, July 14: Clippers at 7 p.m. on Amazon Prime
Thursday, July 16: Bulls at 3 p.m. on Amazon Prime
Fifth game: TBD
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