Bulls’ dreams of a Summer League repeat end vs. Portland
The reign of champions is over and hard times have befallen Chicago basketball once again. The Bulls fell short in their quest to repeat as Vegas Summer League Champions, dropping their first playoff game against the Portland Trail Blazers by a final score of 88–77. Despite missing three of their four rostered NBA players in Kris Dunn (personal, Cameron Payne (personal), and Lauri Markkanen (toe injury), they looked pretty good early and lead by seven after the first quarter. Unfortunately, they failed to win a frame after that, and were outscored 27–16 in the fourth as they crumbled under the weight of the almighty Jake Layman and friends.
There’s not really a whole lot to say about this one. This was a poorly attended contest with key pieces missing on both sides (the Blazers sat their first round pick Zach Collins), and very few interesting things happened. As he has all summer, Denzel Valentine continued to play poorly, scoring 13 points on 13 shots and committing four turnovers to just four assists, despite playing big minutes. He had a few nice passes and potential assists ruined by missed shots — but generally speaking, Denzel didn’t play well. Most of the time, Summer League doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s never good to see a second year player struggle to make impact plays, especially one who’s already 23 years old. There’s a lot of time before the season begins, but early returns are less than encouraging.
The only other real player of note in this game was the undrafted guard Antonio Blakeney. The former LSU product turned in a second consecutive solid outing, scoring a team high 27 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He looked explosive and athletic, almost finishing a huge jam over Jake Layman and dragging himself to the free throw line 17 times (he made 11). The court vision isn’t really there at 6’4” and he’s still quite raw when it comes to play-making, registering zero assists in 35 minutes. Watching him these last couple of games, you can’t help but get the feeling that this guy should be a training camp invite somewhere. With any luck, it’ll be the Bulls to give him a shot. He’s just 20 years old (#youngerandmoreathletic) and they need all the chances they can get to hit on promising young talent in this rebuild. Valentine even had this to say about Blakeney balling out:
The quest for the title may be over, but the Bulls still have a consolation game to play on Friday against Philly. Go Bulls, I guess.
