San Antonio vs. Los Angeles, Final Result: The Spurs beat the Lakers 109-99 ugly

After Monday’s sweet win against the Hornets, the Spurs pulled off an ugly victory tonight, not by playing too well, but by playing harder than hard. Lakers team, and pulled off a 109-99 win in Sacramento.

The California Summer League Classic is a warm-up for the real Summer League, which begins Friday in Las Vegas, when Victor Wimpanyama plays his first game in the Silver and Black when the Summer Spurs take on the Summer Hornets in perhaps the most watched summer. The league game in the history of senseless and overrated training games played by a large number of players who have never played together.

Since tonight’s competition is all about player ratings, in the summary I’ll focus on individual player performance and skip the usual coverage of game flow, which doesn’t matter in this type of exhibition game.

Player summaries

• Victor WimbanyamaNot fully present. It’s as if it wasn’t even there.
• Julien ChampagneDon’t let the soft taste fool you. He is so flexible that you hardly notice how good he is at basketball. In two games in Sacramento, he was MVP. Tottenham made a great choice by giving this guy a long-term contract.
• Dominic Barlow—He didn’t have the same kind of dominant performance he had against the Hornets, but he held his ground against a powerhouse Los Angeles team, and made a crucial block as time ran out in the first half to keep San Antonio’s lead. He had a very solid game tonight without the flashy stats from Monday’s game.
• Regal Branham– Strong start to the game, showed a lot of rebound when attacking. He’s not a great defender, and that’s part of his game that he needs to work on. He’s already a really good scorer.
• Charles PediacoHe seemed a little confused in the first part of the game. He began to find his balance in the second half when Tottenham played him in the lineup with Barlow and used his size to make powerful plays on either end. He’ll need a lot of work in the G-League, but he looks like a solid pickup.
• Sir SissokoHis offense has a long way to go, but the guy is an elite defender, and he plays with an edge.
• Blake WesleyBlake has a much better attacking effort tonight. Instead of driving the ball to the basket, he played more on offense and took shots from midrange when they were available. His defense was as solid as always. The game may slow down for him.
• Chandy Brown– He’s a guy who plays hard, but he’s unlikely to make it to the NBA. He did everything the coach told him to do, he’s a really strong player.
• Eric Stephenson—didn’t make much of an impact, except for hitting a nice open three.
• Javante McCoy– Hit a shot at the end of the first quarter to restore Tottenham’s lead.
• Seth Milner– a sniper who doesn’t seem to have much in his game.
• Josh Carlton– A big bruise that sometimes looked better than Pediaco.
• Matt Nielsen (Coach) – A solid task is to get a group of players who have never played together to look well organized in terms of offense and defense, at least until things got a little weird in the second half.

comments

• Once again, the Spurs got off to a fast start and looked more organized than the pick-ups the Lakers were playing. Los Angeles kept it from exploding with hot shooting, and they made their way back into the game, taking the lead at the end of the first half,
• While talented at the top of Tottenham’s summer league roster, he’s not that deep. Once the rookies went to the bench, there wasn’t anyone on the court that you could play in an NBA regular season game.
• The Lakers have a very nice front court for their Summer League team. Castleton is a real rim guard, and he just might get a lot of minutes this year in Los Angeles.
• Champagnie scored 10 points on his first three shots. It’s hard to be more efficient than that.
• Max Christie swooped in to start the second half to make things interesting, but a massive spurt from Champagne and Tottenham took the silver and black by 13 after three.
• The Spurs lost their cool a bit to start the final quarter as they started to look like a summer league team for the first time in California this year, but they righted the ship and cruised to a win by grabbing rebounds and stopping on their own. I need them.

The Spurs summer squad will play Friday night against the Hornets in Las Vegas in Victor Wimpanyama’s first appearance in a Spurs uniform. It will be broadcast nationally on ESPN, and you don’t want to miss it.

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