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The Utah Summer League tips off tonight with two games. The Philadelphia 76ers will face the San Antonio Spurs; while the Boston Celtics will tangle with the home team Utah Jazz. The games start at 5:00 pm MT at the EnergySolutions Arena, and you may just be able to find some tickets yet. You can get the full details on the league info and schedule here; however, what you need to know is that as of right now the Jazz aren't suiting up Trey Lyles, Tibor Pleiss, or Raul Neto. But it's early. And the main summer league is the Las Vegas one that has a tournament. This is the training session.
In the first game we have the 76ers and Spurs. There are some interesting players for both teams, but mostly because they are borderline NBA talents. I don't think anyone is interested in seeing J.P. Tokoto going up against Jordan , right? Well, people besides me, that is. You want to see Jahlil Okafor going up against Livio Jean-Charles. We'll see some of that in this game, but probably see much more guard dominated play. Of course, second year player Kyle Anderson is theoretically amazing, so we may see flashes of that as well.
In the second game it's the Celtics and Jazz. And it will start and end with Dante Exum going up against Marcus Smart. That's not the whole game, but it's the lotto game most people want to see. The Celtics also have Colton Iverson to counter our Jack Cooley. We have Bryce Cotton to go against Phil Pressey. And they have R.J. Hunter, a great shooter. Perhaps we'll have Olivier Hanlan make him work on defense on the other side of the ball? It should be a fun game. And really. Rodney Hood could easily go for 30. I don't think there's a stopper there on the Celtics, though you figure they'll have to try something.
Welcome to @UtahJazzSL! pic.twitter.com/Egis9h7xh6
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) July 6, 2015
The games are a) live at the ESA for $8, b) on NBA TV, c) on the Radio (assuming 1280 / 97.5), and d) on KJZZ TV.
Let's get hype! It's summer league in Utah!