New York Knicks And Portland Trail Blazers To Face Off In 2022 Summer League Championship
Summer League has become such a pivotal event on the NBA schedule each and every year.
This year is no different, as the 2022 NBA2K23 Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada has been yet another successful event that has drawn in fans of basketball from around the world.
The final day of Summer League this year is on Sunday, July 17 and the first game of the day at 3 p.m. ET. will take place on the floor of Thomas & Mack Center featuring the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2022 Summer League Championship.
Both teams went 3-1 during their four-game “pool play” in Las Vegas over the course of the last week-and-a-half and both teams have some intriguing players heading into this matchup.
The New York Knicks have silently been building a strong looking young core and some of their recent draftees are a part of this year’s Summer League roster.
Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley may not be playing in Las Vegas, but 2021 draft picks Quentin Grimes, Miles McBride and Jericho Sims have done the heavy lifting for this team.
Grimes has scored at least 22 points in all four games he has played in, including three straight games to begin Summer League with 24 points. He is also averaging 4.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and is shooting 34.1% from three-point range.
McBride is averaging 16.8 points and 2.5 steals, as Sims is averaging 11.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks for the Knicks.
On the other side of things, the Portland Trail Blazers have spread the wealth around offensively with last year’s first-round pick in Keon Johnson being their leading scorer.
Johnson is averaging 17.3 points per game and is coming off his best performance in this year’s Summer League with 25 points against the Houston Rockets.
Trendon Watford (12.3 points), Jabari Walker (12.0 points), Brandon Williams (11.3 points) and Craig Randall II (8.0 points) round out the rest of the Trail Blazers’ key scorers in Las Vegas.
These two teams did face off recently on Monday, July 11 in Las Vegas with the Portland Trail Blazers defeating the New York Knicks 88-77. Quentin Grimes led all scorers with 24 points in this game, as Trendon Watford was the leading scorer for Portland with 18 points.
The Knicks are scoring an average of 95.3 points per game (3rd in Summer League) and surrendering an average of 83.5 points per game. The Blazers are scoring an average of 84.0 points per game (23rd in Summer League) and surrendering an average of 75.8 points per game.
The Trail Blazers recently won the Las Vegas Summer League championship in 2018. The Knicks have never won the Las Vegas Summer League championship.
