From Pistonsforum.com, courtesy of LA Dre

Dallas Mavericks vs. Seattle Sonics

Me and the wife rolled into Vegas about 2:30PM yesterday with the temps hitting 110 degrees. Luckily for us the AC was working in COX Pavilion as we sat down at the at the beginning of the second quarter of the Mavs-Sonic games. The early crowd of curious onlookers were there to see Mr. Durant and based on my observations, he is long way from winning rookie of the month in November. Yeah he was the high scorer for the game, but 18 pts on 17 FGA reminds me of Kobe’s early days.. As far as playing defense and banging, it was almost non existent for the number 2 overall pick. It was almost as if the Sonic braintrust said to avoid contact to avoid injury as Durants boney legs and frame initially looked under nourished in the NBA world. On most defensive sequences he stood on the outside watching his fellow players bang for rebounds.

#5 pick Jeff Green played tentively but allowed the focus to be on Durrant. The Sonics also had Johan Petro, Julius Hodge and former Detroit Mercy player Jermaine “I can’t sing” Jackson there to hone their skills. The Mavs Maurice Ager, was clearly the crowd pleaser during this game as the former Spartan star had a series of dazzling dunks scoring 17 points and was the only player to have an autograph table set up after the game for the fans to meet him and get signatures. The Mavs first pick in the draft, Nick Fazekas, (#34 overall) had a terrible game shooting wise (1-7) and his parents who were sitting directly behind us were groaning on every miss.

Team China vs. Memphis Grizzlies.

The Las Vegas tourism bureau knows how to satisfy their visitors from overseas by bringing in Team China to diversify the crowds at the these summer NBA League games. Great idea as the Asian population at the game was in full force as they were there to support their fellow countrymen and it seems everyone in the house was waiting for a surprise visit from Yao Ming himself. Some youngster even yelled there’s Yao and a bunch of folks stood up looking. Alas no Yao sighting today other than a tall teen in a Yao Rockets jersey.

But Team China had an ace in the hole that must have infuriated the Bucks organization. Yes there wearing # 11 in the Team China lineup was the Bucks #6 pick Yi Jianlian. He received a nice ovation from the mixed crowd as he was introduced in the starting lineup.

Team China scored the first 3 points on an and 1 situation but watched the Grizzlies quickly score the next 10 points as Rudy Gay proving that his rookie year was no fluke dazzled the crowd with dunks and Dr. J like swoops to the basket. Meanwhile Jianlian practiced some of his post moves and outside shots and finally got Team China back in the game. His first couple of shots were blocked as he tends to telegraph his moves but based on what I saw he could start in the Pistons middle right now! The bio says he is only 19, but he has more skills than any recent 19 year old big man we use to have on our squad.

The Grizz #4 pick Mike Conley Jr. is very fast, but they had another little guy out there by the name of Klye Lowry a second year player from Villanova last year that was just as quick and seem to run the offense and score when needed. Not sure what he did last season, but the Grizzlies braintrust has a couple of future stars there if they decide to let Lowry develop with PT like they will let Conley do. Of course since this is the summer league it could have been the competition that made him look good.

The Grizz pulled away to a 22 point half time lead as Team China missed a ton of shots in that second qtr, but made a run in the 4th to close the gap back to 8 before losing 86-77. Gay finished with 21 pts, Lowry, 13 and Conley 12. For TC, Jianlian scored 23 despite sitting out most of the second and third qtrs. Team China’s other center a 7 footer by the name of Wang Zhizhi was the game’s high scorer pumping in 27 points, many of them in the 4th qtr rally.

The game was disrupted midway through 4th qtr when Greg Oden and the rest of players for the next game went to change. A crowd of kids quickly converge on him to get autographs and it took awhile to get everyone’s attention back to the game.

Boston Celtics vs. Portland Trailblazers

This final game of the summer schedule brought in a lot of fans with their Celtic and Trailblazer garb as well as fans or alumni of The Ohio State University. The late crowd was more vocal than the earlier fans because their future seem to be on the line here. Prior to the game you saw the likes of Doc Rivers, Danny Ainge, Nate McMillan, and Mo Lucas hanging out and signing autographs for the younger fans.

Once again Oden got the largest ovation during the lineup announcements. His first act of enforcement was to block a three jump point shot from the left wing for a goal tend. Those sitting around me questioned why he would attempt that and only surmized that he wanted to let us know that he could block and he has arrived. He quickly got three fouls in the first three minutes and sat down until the second qtr. On the other side of the ball, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, the C’s #35 selection in the draft also picked up 3 quick fouls in the first 4 mins and had to sit awhile. He is a mound of energy and appeared quicker and less nervous than Oden (at least last night he appeared to be) and I only wished he could give at least 30 of his listed 289 pounds to our own Amir Johnson. He does have the energy, but way to early to see if he will become the next Barkley, Corliss or Oliver Miller

Of the Trailblazers other draft selections, only Taurean Green the #56 selection seem to have a flow of the game, but missed a lot of shots (but surprisingly was able to grab a few of his own rebounds). Not much play out of Petteri Koponen and Josh McRoberts. Gabe Pruitt, the guy who accused the Pistons of hanging him out to dry in the draft room looked kind of decent out there for the Celtics, but didn’t make enough of an impact in his first game.

I left after the end of the 3rd quarter, but Oden had 8 fouls at the time and 4 points and fouled out with 10 fouls. LaMarcus Aldridge had a real good game and if he and Oden can form a good tandem over there the next couple of seasons, then those twin towers can challenge for the ring by 2010 if not sooner.

Looks like this game is getting ready to be televised on NBATV right now, so you all can view and form your own opinions. I will be back over at the Cox Pavilion in about 2 hours to get ready for JMAX, Amir, Stuckey, Afflowlo and Co. Hopefully Amir is here with his agent and he and Joe can sit down tomorrow at MGM and ink his contract. Later folks.

Oops, forgot to mention that the Celtics probably won this game due to the added “veteran” play of Gerald Green and Rajon Rondo as well as the inspired play of Leon Powe.