SummerBulls in LVSL Playoffs: Bulls Advance to Finals
After winning their sixth game in six tries during their time in Las Vegas, the SummerBulls will play for the Las Vegas Summer League title on Monday night in Vegas against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The summer league version of the Chicago Bulls are heading to the NBA (Summer League) Finals.
During a night of excessive Denzel Valentine-inspired Trading Places references from ESPN color commentator Jon Barry (humored, though not encouraged, by play-by-play man Mark Jones), the SummerBulls beat Kay Felder, Jordan McRae and the (summer) Cleveland Cavaliers, 85-79.
The victory was sealed late behind the clutch play from Valentine, Cristiano Felicio, Bobby Portis and Spencer Dinwiddie. The SummerBulls, the LVSL postseason’s No. 2 seed, is now 6-0 and will face the 24th-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (4-3 in LVSL play) on Monday night at 8 p.m. CST on ESPN 2.
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It was another rough outing offensively with the Pete Myers-coached squad, shooting a paltry 36.4 percent from the field (as opposed to the 43.9 percent from the Cavaliers, which was mainly off the strength of a sharpshooting first half).
Things were looking dire by the middle of the second quarter. The Bulls didn’t manage to score from the field across the first 3:59 of the quarter (albeit, with Portis and Valentine on the bench). The Bulls found themselves down at the half, 46-36.
Of course, this is the Las Vegas Summer League and eventually, Cleveland coughed up the entirety of a lead that had ballooned as high as 13 points. Though the SummerBulls shot horribly from the field overall, their inside scoring helped swing the game, as they scored 32 points in the paint against Cleveland’s 18 — largely a credit to aggressive multiple efforts around the rack by Portis and Felicio.
Overall, the SummerBulls outscored the Cavaliers, 49-33 over the final two periods, keyed by Denzel Valentine. The defense was key in the win, too. The Cavaliers coughed up the ball 17 times and though some of these were unforced, many weren’t. (Four of the five Bull starters have at least two steals.)
The second half was a different story than the first for Valentine and Jerian Grant, as they scored all of their 26 combined points in the final two quarters. Grant exploited a hilarious size mismatch several times with the dynamic Kay Felder or taking advantage of him in pick-and-roll situations.
With the semifinal win in the books, let’s break down the performances of the five Bulls who might actually be suiting up next to the “Three Alphas” next season.
Next: Cristiano Felicio