The Boston Celtics suffered their first loss at Las Vegas Summer League at the hand of Denver Nuggets 82-69. Boston dropped to 1-1 with the loss. Jabari Bird had a big offensive night for the Celtics with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field. His offensive efforts included these two loud finishes: I'm here for Vegas Jabari Bird pic.twitter.com/YwyjO3FvDO — Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) July 8, 2018 Unfortunately for the Celtics, that was about all of the offense for the night. No other Boston player hit double figures, as Pierria Henry had nine points, Hassan Martin had eight points and Guerschon Yabusele, Jarrod Uthoff and Jarell Eddie had seven points apiece. Yabusele did give us this highlight slam: And Martin added this one in the second half: Hassan Martin is angry at the rim pic.twitter.com/nJt63CQ3b7 — CelticsBlog (@celticsblog) July 8, 2018 Boston played without rookie Robert Williams III, who suffered a slight leg injury in the first Summer League game. The team hopes to have him back for the next game. Malik Beasley led the Nuggets with 19 points and Monte Morris added 14. The Celtics will next play on Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets.<doc-sep>LAS VEGAS – Malik Beasley promised a bounce-back offensive performance, and on Saturday that’s exactly what he provided. His 19 points helped lead the Nuggets to an 82-69 win over the Boston Celtics at Cox Pavilion, giving them a 2-0 start in the Las Vegas Summer League. As he did in the first game, Beasley started aggressively with 11 points in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. He finished the game 6-of-13 from the field and 2-of-6 from the 3-point line. The biggest difference in Beasley’s offense from the first game to the second? “Keeping it simple,” Nuggets summer league coach Jordi Fernandez said. “Play the way he needs to play in the NBA – guarding, shooting, shooting the open three; one, two dribbles, get rid of the ball and get it back. I think that he’s been really good. I liked his energy and his attitude.” Beasley was one of three Nuggets in double-figure scoring. DeVaughn Akoon Purcell scored 19 points as well, all in the final three quarters, 15 of them in the second half. Monte Morris continued his solid play with 14 points and six assists in the game. “I just came in with the mindset, coming into the whole summer league tournament…to just be aggressive,” Purcell said. “It starts on defense. I feel like me playing hard on defense helps me on offense.” These are the takeaways from the Nuggets win over Boston. Morris playing through fatigue: This was a big challenge for the high-energy point guard. It was the second of a back-to-back. He’d expended a ton of energy on Friday night running the offense and picking up ball handlers full court on defense. On Saturday, the Celtics were physical with him, didn’t allow him to get into the open court and he had to make shots, stay focused and play tough defense through fatigue. “It takes a lot (of energy),” said Morris, after the game. “Right now, I feel good but I know once I get to my room and relax I’ll definitely feel it. But, if I’ve got to do that to get a contract, I’m not going to complain.” And he’s done all of this while taking care of the basketball, which was his trademark coming out of college. Morris has 10 assists and just two turnovers in the first two games. “Just trying to find my teammates,” Morris said. “I try to go out there and not even think about turnovers.” Kenrich Williams gets a start: In the press conference following the summer league opener on Friday night, it didn’t take long for Nuggets summer league coach Jordi Fernandez to single out the defensive effort of Kenrich Williams. And for that effort, Williams was placed in the starting lineup. He made more defensive plays against the Celtics, including a blocked shot in which he showed good lateral quickness by staying with a driving ball-handler, then swatting away a pull-up jumper attempt. Williams was a plus-13 for the night. Defense steps to the fore: One of the emerging team storylines is the fact that these Nuggets are turning out to be a very good defensive bunch. In two games, they’ve had just one bad quarter – the fourth quarter of their win over Minnesota on Friday. Still they’ve allowed just 26 field goals in each of the first two games, have held their first two opponents to 38.2 percent shooting (52-of-136) overall, and just 9-of-47 from the 3-point line (19.1 percent). In addition, the Nuggets have forced 33 total turnovers and average 14.0 points per game off of them. First action: Center Petr Cornelie and guard Stan Okoye both got their first taste of summer league action on Saturday night. Both came off the bench in the victory. Cornelie finished with two points and three rebounds in 14 minutes, while Okoye had four points and two rebounds in 17 minutes. Cancar continues to impress: In the starting lineup with Tyler Lydon not playing due to rest, Vlatko Cancar played well again with nine points, six rebounds and two steals in the game. He made 4-of-7 shots from the field, and bounced back from a turned ankle to finish the game. He is not likely to be on the roster this season, but the progress he’s made has many in the organization very encouraged about his future. “Every time you look at the kid, he’s got a smile on his face,” Fernandez said. “Every time. A lot of people have bad body language and they feel sorry for themselves. Him? Every time he walks around he’ll say hi to you and he just smiles. I think that’s contagious, and as much as that’s a little bit of ‘rah rah,’ in a team it helps a lot.” Christopher Dempsey: christopher.dempsey@altitude.tv and @chrisadempsey on Twitter.<doc-sep>“Vlatko, they can’t guard you!” is not something I expected to hear in a real basketball game, but that’s the beauty of Summer League. The relative expectations foster idealistic evaluation, and otherwise irrelevant basketball players are transformed into legends—even if it is sometimes rooted in irony as much as it is genuine appreciation for talent. Not surprisingly, this particular bit of vocalized adoration was comedic in nature. Cancar did not have quite the same impact as he did in game one and Denver’s half court offense sputtered in the first half. Their opponents, the Boston Celtics, could indeed stop Vlatko, but the Nuggets had no trouble stopping them as their defensive identity reared its head in an 82-69 stomping on day two of Las Vegas Summer League. The Nuggets went with a slightly different starting lineup from day one. Thomas Welsh (shoulder) and Tyler Lydon (unclear) did not play, clearing the way for Kennedy Meeks and Kenrich Williams to slide into the starting five. Their back court consisted of Monte Morris and Malik Beasley, while Vlatko Cancar filled out the starting unit at power forward. With Meeks in the game, the Nuggets half court offense seemed sedentary in the first half. When Meeks was fed the ball in the post, the Nuggets stood and watched. As the perimeter players probed the defense for weaknesses, the dribble hand offs and off ball cuts never came. The majority of the offensive production came from the usual suspects, Monte Morris and Malik Beasley, but it wasn’t the result of good offensive basketball. Their athletic ability and NBA experienced prevailed in a particularly sloppy half but it wasn’t what coach Jordi Fernandez was looking for. During a timeout near the end of the half, Fernandez’s colorful vocabulary was on full display as he implored his team to wake up and start moving. I really wish I could write it down verbatim, but alas, you’ll just have to use your imaginations. While the offense sputtered, the defensive identity that was described by the players during Summer League practices reared its head. Kenrich Williams was the ultimate disrupter and put in a phenomenal effort on the boards. He took just one shot and finished with just four rebounds, but his impact on this game ran much deeper than the box score. The story in the second half was DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell. The 25-year old forward out of Eastern Oklahoma State College finished with 19 points in as many minutes and provided a much needed spark for the Nuggets. Purcell finished 2-4 from deep and was able to put his head down and draw fouls, finishing with five made free throws on as many attempts. The off ball activity that Fernandez was looking for returned in the second half. As the Nuggets began moving, the ball started hopping and the shots started falling. Morris, who impressed for the second straight game with 14 points and six assists was able to settle into his preferred role as a quick decision maker and capable facilitator. Denver found their groove on offense and never let their foot off the gas defensively as they secured their second victory in as many nights. They’ll have the day off tomorrow.<doc-sep>The Denver Nuggets were able to go 2-0 in Summer League play the other night. The Denver Nuggets got an impressive win over the Boston Celtics in Summer League by winning by double digits. The game was extremely neck and neck for the first three quarters. The Nuggets then blew it wide open in the fourth quarter thanks to some key plays and a couple of players who were clearly the players of the game. One player to keep an eye on the Celtics is Jabari Bird, who had a great outing whether you want to admit or not. Want your voice heard? Join the Nugg Love team! Write for us! Without further adieu, let’s go ahead and analyze the two players on Denver’s Summer League roster from the win over the Boston Celtics.<doc-sep>
Boston Celtics (1-0) vs Denver Nuggets (1-0) Saturday, July 7, 2018 11:00 PM ET NBA-TV Las Vegas Summer League Game 2 Cox Pavilion Las Vegas, Nevada The Celtics will play their second game in the Vegas Summer League as they take on the Denver Nuggets in the late game at Cox Pavilion. Both teams are coming off a win in their first game with the Celtics pulling out a 95-89 win over the Sixers and Denver squeaking by the Wolves 90-89. The Celtics’ veterans, Semi Ojeleye, Guerschon Yabusele, and Jabari Bird led the Celtics to a 6 point win over the Philadelphia 76ers. It was the first of what is sure to be many games this season between these two teams. Both teams will likely battle for the top spot in the East this season. The Celtics’ first round pick, Robert Williams, bumped knees with someone early in the game and left after playing just 6 minutes. He participated in most of the shoot around and will be evaluated before tonight’s game but is listed as doubtful to play in this one as of now. He has been battling a little tendonitis and so they will likely be cautious with him. Both the Celtics and Nuggets have a trio of players who return from last season and are expected to lead their teams. For the Celtics it is Ojeleye, Yabusele and Bird and for the Nuggets it is Beasley, Morris and Lydon. The Nuggets are without two of their picks from this year’s draft as Michael Porter, Jr (14th) and Jarred Vanderbilt (41) are recovering from injuries. Boston Celtics Roster Kadeem Allen Justin Bibbs Jabari Bird Demitrius Conger Trey Davis Daniel Dixon Jarell Eddie Pierria Henry Hassan Martin Semi Ojeleye Jarrod Uthoff Robert Williams III Guerschon Yabusele Players to Watch Grid View Jabari Bird Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports Semi Ojeleye Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports Guerschon Yabusele Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports Pierria Henry Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images Semi Ojeleye set the pace for the Celtics on both ends of the court against the Sixers. He finished with 16 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. The Celtics will need him to lead the team once again in this game. Guerschon Yabusele also finished with 16 points and added 7 rebounds and 2 assists. When the game was on the line in the 4th quarter, he came up big and hit a layup and a 3 to assure the Celtics the victory. Jabari Bird looked good against the Sixers, scoring 14 points along with 8 rebounds and 2 assists. The Celtics will need him to continue to play well in this game. Denver Nuggets Roster DeVaughn Akoon Purcell Malik Beasley Vlatko Cancar Petr Cornelie Hayden Dalton Tyler Lydon Scott machado Kennedy Meeks Monte Morris Stan Okoye Marcus Posley Victor Sanders Andre Spight Emanuel Terry Thomas Welsh Kenrich Williams Players to Watch Grid View Tyler Lydon Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports Malik Beasley Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports Monte Morris Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports Tyler Lydon was the 24th pick in the 2017 draft but was injured 1 game into his rookie season. His knee has fully healed and he is ready to try to prove himself in this year’s Summer League after working on his shot and adding muscle in the off season. He came up with 7 points 7 rebounds and 3 assists in his first game back from the knee injury. Malik Beasley is entering his third season with the Nuggets. He was the 19th pick in 2016. He played 22 games in his first season and 62 in his second season. He has averaged 3.32 points and 1.05 rebounds in his two seasons so far. He put up 10 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in his first game. Monte Morris was the 51st pick last season and is looking to take a step forward in his development with a big game in Summer League. Morris scored 15 points to go with 2 rebounds and 4 assists in Denver’s win over the Wolves.