.png)
Miami prevented Memphis from picking up a second NBA Summer League championship in five playable summers after a wild overtime victory en route to the trophy.
The Heat beat the Grizzlies, 120-118, Monday, July 22 from the Thomas & Mack Center in the final game of this year’s summer league. In doing so, Miami hauled in its first summer league championship.
“Everybody is extremely selfless,” guard Josh Christopher said. “That’s what a team is supposed to be. Everybody is a buy-in type of person and everybody is a joy to play with and be around.”
Rookie guard Pelle Larsson nailed the game-winner in the target-score overtime finish.
“Pelle’s one of our more poised guys out there on both ends,” head coach Dan Bisaccio said. “He got a couple of tough fouls early – he played six minutes basically. So for him to kind of put that aside and work through that was extremely impressive. Especially for a guy that just got drafted.”
Larsson scored the first seven points of the game for the Heat. He scored the remainder of his 16 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“I barely played most of the game – I was on the bench cheering for my teammates,” he said. “I take pride in that too, they did a hell of a job. The theme of our summer was, ‘Just find a way.’”
Miami grabbed the lead late in regulation for the first time since leading 32-30 early in the second quarter. The flip of the game came on an 11-3 run for the eventual champions.
“We could’ve easily just caved,” Bisaccio said. “They’re up six, they’re up eight, we’re going down, we’re not getting great actions. We could’ve easily just folded.”
Forward Cole Swider and Memphis forward GG Jackson traded threes to tie the game at 113 apiece, sending the game into overtime.
Midway through the third quarter, the Grizzlies bench began to call out and even heckle on-court Heat players with center Neal Sako as the focal point oftentimes. He picked up three points and three rebounds in just under eight minutes of action but he’d shoot 1-for-5 from the free throw line.
“I would say we needed motivation at that time,” Sako said. “They were taking the lead and after that moment we kind of took over.”
As MIami made its run in the fourth quarter and into overtime, Memphis missed eight of 13 free throw attempts.
“Poetic justice,” Sako said. “Things come around and then they come at you. I’m glad we got the job done.”
Christopher won Championship Game MVP honors after his team-high 24 points on 9-of-17 from the field with six made threes. Several of those long balls came down-the-stretch of the win even with the shot clock and game clock winding down.
At one point of the second quarter, Christopher scored 10 of 13 points for Miami.
“I don’t know what I thought,” he said one of his deep dagger threes. “I knew it had to go up and if you see on tape I just went like, ‘Thank you God.’”
Teammates Alondes Williams and Kel’el Ware each added 21 points apiece. The latter also added 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Memphis forward Jake LaRavia led all scorers with 32 points on 52% shooting after not playing in the team’s semifinal contest the day prior. He scored nine points in the game’s opening quarter and would trade three-pointers with Christopher to tie the game at 118.
Guard Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 29 points to go along with a game-high 11 assists. The aforementioned Jackson chipped in with 28 points including 13 in the third quarter.
Commentaires