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The Phoenix Suns' summer league team not only got the win in tonight's finale, they played their best, most balanced game.
Markieff Morris put on a show tonight scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Morris not only shot the ball more efficiently, going 10-17, he also made some really nice strong moves to the basket, showed great footwork in the post, and also made some very difficult shots over defenders that didn't look like they had a chance.
But the story of tonight's game belongs to Kendall Marshall. Marshall brought his A-game on offense tonight scoring 15 points off of some strong drives to the basket and also some threes. Marshall shot 6-10 from the field overall including 3-4 from downtown.
Not only that, but Marshall really showed his biggest strength with some great assists. He made some awesome go ahead passes to find teammates streaking down the floor to score at the other end...and we also saw more passes made after penetrating into the lane and finding the open man. Marshall finished with a summer league high 10 assists tonight to go along with his 15 points, 4 rebounds, and a team high +19 as well ... Atta boy K-Butter!
Continue reading after the jump for more on tonight's action ...
As for the rest of the Summer Suns, they did ok too. Garcia scored 12 points off 3-4 shooting, Landry scored 15 points off 5-10 shooting, Tucker grabbed 9 boards and scored 10 points off 5-8 shooting, and Sims (who never saw a shot attempt he didn't like) scored 13 points off 6-11 shooting.
But what about the three players I thought had the best chance to get a training camp invite (besides Garcia), well...let's just say they better hope they already proved what they were capable of before tonight. Garrett scored only 2 points, both off free throws, and went 0-4 from the field and also netted 0 assists. Matt Gatens was a DNP, and Lighty scored only 4 points off of 2-5 shooting.
Although for Lighty, something should be said for how he at least held Josh Selby in check a after he got off to a fast start scoring 11 points in the first quarter. Lighty was brought in shortly after and immediately made it much more difficult for him. I don't recall Selby actually scoring on Lighty while he was guarding him, but Lighty only played around 14 minutes while Selby played nearly 30, so he still ended up with 23 points. I still think Lighty has a good chance of getting a training camp invite based on his impressive perimeter defense and spot up shooting ability...but time will tell.
And with that, the Summer Suns' end their Vegas trip with a record of 2-3, and ending on a high note with a win over a pretty good Grizzlies team. Markieff was unquestionably the best player on the team, and Marshall finally showed (at least I hope) why so many people, including myself, are so high on him. Training camp won't begin until October, but Markieff and Marshall looked like they already developed some chemistry together over the last week. Let's hope they can both build on that and continue to improve as they get ready for the regular season.
For those of you who missed seeing the game live, it will be broadcast tonight at 10pm P.S.T. on NBA TV. This is one you may not want to miss.
Here is some post game audio courtesy of our own Seth Pollack: