Los Angeles Lakers vs. Chicago Bulls (6pm ET)
The Lakers enter Thursday undefeated in Las Vegas, and will attempt to finish 4-0 with a win over the Bulls — putting them into the Summer League Playoffs with a chance to win a ring. Yes, there are Summer League rings.
The Lakers already have some nice experience from playing in the California Classic prior to Vegas, so this roster is really playing in their seventh game together in the month of July. While the lineup for the Lakers isn’t filled with overwhelming talent, it’s been solid enough to win games. The absence of any high-level prospects means that guys have not been shutdown halfway through the league, like we saw with the Wizards for example. This is one of those tricky balances it takes to be a contender in Summer League — you need some talent to compete, but it can’t be the elite type of talent that only participates in the first couple of games.
For the Lakers, they’ve been led by a nice mix of players with NBA experience, prospects trying to make the league, and a first round draft pick that wasn’t selected high enough to take time off in Vegas. That would be Cameron Carr, the No. 24 pick in last month’s NBA Draft, who went for 23 points in Tuesday’s upset win over the Clippers.
Carr has plenty of help, though. Adou Thiero, Chris Mañon, Anton Watson and Arthur Kaluma all have NBA experience, and have each come up with big games over the course of Summer League. On the Bulls side, this is all about developing prospects, so we’ll see who they choose to play. Chicago lost its first two games and is out of the playoffs, and will conclude its Vegas trip with a back-to-back by facing the Cavs on Friday.
Maybe Caleb Wilson can talk his way into playing one more game, but he’s shown everything the organization needs to see from him. As good as Wilson’s individual performance has been, the team still has not been great. Jaylin Sellers is the only other Bull really playing well. So even at full strength, I like the Lakers here, but there’s also the chance that Chicago starts to rest prospects.
That would be the ideal situation to get a fully motivated lineup from the Lakers, going against the backups for the Bulls, which is not out of the question. I’ll lay the points with the Lakers now and hope the number keeps going.
NBA Summer League Pick: Lakers -4.5 (-110)
