Portland’s Jerryd Bayless drives past Washington Wizards’ Andray Blatche during the Trailblazers’ 78-73 victory in an NBA Summer League game at the Cox Pavilion. Bayless (11th overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft) was one of three lottery picks, Kevin Love (fifth pick) and Danilo Gallinari (sixth), to make their pro debuts on Monday.
Monday, July 14, 2008 | 9:30 p.m.
Danilo Gallinari of the New York Knicks dribbles down court during his first NBA Summer League game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Cox Pavilion on Monday.
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- Kevin Love on what he hopes to take away from this week's NBA Summer League.
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Audio Clip
- Minnesota coach Jerry Sichting on what Kevin Love will learn at Summer League.
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Expanded Coverage
One thing definitely stood out in Kevin Love’s first NBA game Monday night at the Cox Pavilion, the All-American from UCLA doesn’t like to be on the wrong end of the scoreboard.
“I never like losing. I’m not use to it. I don’t accept it,” said Love, after Minnesota’s 88-74 setback to Dallas.
“We just got to come out Wednesday, play our hearts out and try to come out with a win.”
The rookie settled down after a shaky first half and finished his debut with 18 points (7-of-13) and 13 rebounds.
“He just got comfortable,” said Minnesota’s Summer League coach Jerry Sichting. “There for a while in the first everyone had the deer-in-the-headlights look.
“He’s gonna be a good player,” Sichting continued. “He does a lot of good things. And he’s going to be better with better players around him too, because he’s so smart. He knows how to space the floor, he knows how to pass, he knows how to throw the outlets. He’s gonna do some good things for us.”
Bayless Blazing — Portland rookie guard Jerryd Bayless wasted no time to make his mark on his first pro game — recording a quick foul. However it would be on the opposite side of the call where Bayless put in work Monday evening. The 11th overall pick got to the foul line 23 times and knocked down 18 charities to give him a game-high 28 points.
The guard out of Arizona scored 10 of Portland's 16 first quarter points, but it was his pair of free-throws with 12 seconds left that iced the Trailblazers' 78-73 win.
"I think I played well,” Bayless said. “It got a lot of kinks out I think and I’m still figuring out how to shoot at this level. I think I’ll be fine.”
Near Record — While Love was making his debut in the Cox Pavilion, Houston's Donte Greene was doing his best to become the Summer League record-holder for points scored.
When the smoke cleared the rookie out of Syracuse fell two points shy of Von Wafter and Marcus Banks' mark of 42. Greene finished with 40 on 12-of-20 shooting (5-of-10 from three) and Houston escaped with a 100-97 win
I didn't know that it was a record – I was just here to get a W," Greene told NBA.com. "Once I got to 36, Phoenix started keying in on me a lot more, so I started to look for my teammates to get them going and we got the win."
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