2006 Summer Pro League – Day Seven

Richard Walker/Photos courtesy of Jim Hlavac

Day 7 of the Long Beach Summer Pro League was blessed by the arrival of the Washington Wizards warmed up and ready to go after their stint in Las Vegas. With only 3 NBA teams up to this point the Wizards arrival is like a breath of fresh air to the talent starved SPL fans. Unfortunately first round pick Oleksiy Pecherov didn’t get into the game during Washington’s 114-85 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers today, but we’re looking forward to seeing him in the upcoming games. Despite leading from tipoff the game was actually much closer than the score would indicate, with the Lakers making their run and taking charge in the fourth quarter.

Wizards

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Andray Blatche – Listed at 6’11” Blatche doesn’t play a “big man” game at all, in fact he doesn’t even appear to be 6’11” – although that might be more a function of his style of play than anything. He’s much more comfortable handling the ball, driving to the hoop and shooting outside jumpers. Blatche posses a wide variety of skills you wouldn’t expect in a player of his size and looks to be more of a 3 than a 4/5. He scored 26 points on 50% shooting and went 1 for 4 from behind the arc showing that he does possess that kind of range. His 6 turnovers are a bit worrying, however with a guy that size and that young handling the ball it’s not too much of a concern.

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Will Solomon – Will didn’t score until the final minutes of the game, and was picked several times by Lakers guard Doron Perkins. He did a decent job distributing, picking up 5 assists, but had troubles bringing the ball up the court with the pressure D.

Rashad Anderson – Rashad showed a very solid midrange game, but had trouble handling the ball and distributing. He started out hot in the first half, but cooled off significantly in the second.

Lakers

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Andrew Bynum – Bynum bounced back today with 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting and 8 boards. He showed a variety of post moves and decent touch from just outside the paint with a spin move away from the basket and a head fake and short jumper. He blocked 2 shots and also dished 3 assists. It was nice to see Bynum match up against a taller player for once, in Peter John Ramos, forcing him to use some legitimate moves as opposed to his height, long arms and athleticism.

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Jordan Farmar – This wasn’t Farmar’s best game, but it was a welcome sight to his fellow players to have him on the floor running the offense and distributing the ball. Despite only being credited with 1 assist, Farmar did a fairly good job handling the ball, playing pressure defense and coordinating the plays. He scored 13 points on 4 of 9 shooting (1 of 2 from behind the arc) and once again displayed a beautiful left handed floater while driving down the lane.

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Doron Perkins – Perkins was brought in as a defensive specialist and he showed it while hounding the Wizards guards and getting 4 credited steals and numerous deflections. The real surprise though was his offensive production tonight going 5 of 9 for 19 points and 8 of 8 from the charity stripe. He did a much better job this game of keeping the offense flowing when Farmar was on the bench and started a couple of nice runs with his defensive intensity.

Danilo Pinnock/JR Pinnock – Pinnock chipped in with 2 steals to add to Perkins 4 as they both man-handled the poor Washington backcourt. He scored 13 points today on an impressive 6 of 7 shooting and found time to dish 4 assists. His quick hands, aggressive defense and heady play continue to create him quality scoring opportunities on the other end.