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2021 MGM Resorts #NBASummer League Championship Game MVP.. Louis King! #ThatsGame pic.twitter.com/2lyrxPyvtX
— NBA (@NBA) August 18, 2021
Former Oregon Ducks basketball player Louis King might have earned himself a lot of money this summer.
The 6-foot-7 forward dominated the NBA Summer League and led the Sacramento Kings to their first championship since 2014.
Sacramento defeated the Boston Celtics 100-67 where King scored 24 points and managed five steals. As for the summer, King wasn’t just a flash in the pan. He averaged 13.5 points, five rebounds and 1.5 steals as his team was a perfect 5-0.
According to King, it all came down to defense and easy baskets as he talked to the Associated Press after the game in Las Vegas.
Our transition, that’s what started it, our defense and transition points, that’s what it came down to. I feel like everything we’re doing now, that we’re doing all summer, and what we’ve been doing is just going to translate into our regular-season team.
Unfortunately, that defensive effort seemed to hamstring another former Duck, Payton Pritchard. He was held to just six points and 0-for-6 on three-point attempts. But this was an anomaly for the West Linn native as Pritchard averaged nearly 17 points and shot almost 47 percent from three-point range.
But in all honesty, this game was far more important for King than it was for Pritchard. The former Oregon point guard has a solid roster spot with the Celtics and is entrenched in their rotation.
King went undrafted after spending just one season in Eugene and he has gone back and forth from the G League to the NBA. But with this summer performance, he might have landed a permanent roster spot for an up-and-coming team such as Sacramento.
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