At this point, D’Angelo Russell is simply doing what he wants.
The 20-year-old continued his blistering start to Summer League by dropping 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting in 24 minutes to lead the Lakers to a largely uncompetitive 78-65 victory over Golden State.
Russell often dazzled with his handle — hitting three crossovers on one layup-ending play — but was even more impressive with his shooting, as he knocked down four of his seven 3-point attempts.
His second-year teammate, Anthony Brown, labeled Russell’s confidence “at an all-time high.”
“I think that last year he took a lot of unnecessary dribbles and unnecessary shots, but this year he knows exactly what he wants and he knows exactly how to get it,” Anthony Brown said. “He could pretty much control the game, so to speak, right now.”
Indeed, Russell — who scored 22 points in the first half alone — is looking like a completely different player than he did at last year’s Summer League. He is averaging 22.7 points on 53.3 percent shooting in Las Vegas after putting up just 11.8 on 37.7 percent as a rookie.
Thanks largely to Russell’s improvement, Los Angeles — which went 1-4 at Summer League last year — has won all three of its games so far, earning a first-round bye for the tournament portion. Next up will be the round of 16 on Thursday.
“He can score every time he wants, he has the ball, he sees everything,” Ivica Zubac said of Russell. “I really love to play with him and set screens for him.”
While his teammates are quick to douse him with praise, Russell keeps perspective about his showing at Summer League.
After spending a season playing against the best players in the world, he knows that he cannot put his game on full display against rosters like Golden State’s, which has only one player with NBA experience.
“I feel like I haven’t really showcased it,” Russell said. “I know I worked on being consistent. I worked on my post-ups, locking in on defense. That’s all I can really showcase out here to a certain extent, because it’s not the NBA. You’re not guarding All-Star guards every night.”
Likewise, Summer League head coach Jesse Mermuys had the regular season in mind as he continued to focus on “reining in” Russell despite his effectiveness in isolation against Summer League competition.
“I want him to feel confident and we want him to have that swag, and it’s unbelievable — it’s powerful,” Mermuys said. “But we want him to be able to do it at the right times and do it in a winning style of play. He’s finding his way, and I give him so much credit for being so coachable.”
The Lakers won handily while their starters rested the entire fourth quarter, but Russell still called the team’s performance “real sloppy.”
He was the only Laker to score double figures, although they didn’t need anyone else to considering that the Warriors shot a woeful 29.7 percent from the field. However, this too wasn’t enough for Russell, who claimed that Golden State was missing quality looks rather than folding against exceptional defense.
He noted that he and Mermuys felt that the game would have been much closer if he hadn’t caught fire at the end of the first half by hitting three 3-pointers and scoring all of L.A.’s final 11 points.
“We both knew that it started with me,” he said. “I bailed us out. I was making some tough shots. But we came out sluggish: turning the ball over, not executing, they were denying it.”
Ingram Comes Up Empty
Second-overall pick Brandon Ingram had another rough night from the field, where he missed all five of his attempts against Golden State.
Despite his errant shooting, Ingram managed to bait the Warriors into continuously sending him to the free throw line, where he shot 7-of-9 to finish with seven points and seven rebounds.
However, the 18-year-old seems to be slumping in his last two games. After a promising 5-of-9 night in the Summer League opener against New Orleans, he has gone just 3-of-17 versus Philadelphia and Golden State. The 41.0 percent 3-point shooter at Duke has also missed all six of his shots from downtown in Vegas.
Ingram maintained that he has not felt overwhelmed by opponents, pointing out that the Blue Devils faced some of the best that the NCAA had to offer. However, he did allow that the physicality and pace of Summer League has been an adjustment for him.
“When guys get physical, I think it’s important to hit them first before they hit you,” he said. “I’m just trying to be aggressive and try to make plays for other teammates when I’m not knocking my shot down.”
Letting It Fly
In his brief European career, Zubac almost exclusively played at the rim, rarely shooting from farther than 10 feet away.
But Zubac — who tallied nine points (3-of-3), five rebounds and two blocks — has shown nice touch in a small sample size at Summer League, including on a pair of mid-range jumpers that he swished against Golden State.
“I wanted to show that because can hit that,” the 19-year-old said. “In Europe, coaches didn’t want me to shoot the jumper (from) mid-range, but I always knew I had it.”
Zubac shot 80.0 percent on free throws for Mega Leks in the Adriatic League last season, so his form shows promise. It will remain to be seen if the jumper will continue to fall — like it did on Saturday as well — or if it is something to save for the future.
Either way, he isn’t going to be shy about pulling the trigger.
“When I’m open,” he said, “I’m going to shoot.”
Notes
Brown scored eight points (3-of-8), while Larry Nance Jr. went scoreless on one shot in 17 minutes. … Backup center Moustapha Fall had six points (3-of-3) and four blocks in 16 minutes. … Keifer Sykes (16 points, four steals), Patrick McCaw (13 points, four steals) and Robert Carter (11 points, seven rebounds) led the Warriors, but combined to shoot just 13-of-37.