{"id":167295,"date":"2025-07-13T06:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T06:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/167295\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T06:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T06:05:22","slug":"with-lebron-james-courtside-bronny-puts-on-a-summer-league-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/167295\/","title":{"rendered":"With LeBron James courtside, Bronny puts on a Summer League show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The crowd inside the Thomas &amp; Mack Center began to stir a few seconds before the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lakers<\/a> took the court, the buzz caused by LeBron James strolling into the arena to see his son play.<\/p>\n<p>The elder James took a baseline seat as <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2025-07-10\/lakers-dallas-mavericks-cooper-flagg-bronny-james\" data-autoplayable-video=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bronny James<\/a> and the rest of the Lakers took the court for warmups ahead of Saturday night\u2019s NBA Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n<p>There was a point early in the second half when <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2024-12-30\/lakers-lebron-james-turns-40-longevity-twilight-of-his-career\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a> began to offer advice to Bronny \u2014 the kind of encouragement that helped Bronny put up a solid performance during the Lakers\u2019 <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba-summer-league\/boxscore\/_\/gameId\/401793901\/league\/nba-summer-las-vegas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">94-81<\/a> win.<\/p>\n<p>He had 14 points on five-for-11 shooting. He made one of four three-point attempts and also had three assists and two steals.<\/p>\n<p>Bronny\u2019s defense was solid as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, we want him to play on the ball,\u201d said <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2024-07-16\/lakers-hire-lindsey-harding-as-teams-first-female-assistant-coach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lindsey Harding<\/a>, Lakers assistant coach and Summer League coach. \u201cEspecially in tight moments, I like the ball in his hands and I want him to make those decisions. You can go through as many drills as you want, but nothing beats live. <\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Lakers star LeBron James sits courtside during the team's NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas on Saturday.\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"1586\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752386721_973_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Lakers star LeBron James sits courtside during the team\u2019s NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>(Ethan Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo even after this, he will sit with his coach and watch his reads. Some are great, some can be better. &#8230; But it comes with confidence and even this game, whether he made the shot or not, that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s about making the right read.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few possessions after Bronny got the crowd cheering by driving the length of the court and scoring on a left-handed layup, LeBron started instructing him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore. More. Get downhill more,\u201d LeBron told him.<\/p>\n<p>On his next play, Bronny did just that, driving in for a layup.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the fourth quarter, Bronny drove baseline and threw a pass that was tipped out of bounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPull-up,\u201d LeBron told him. \u201cGoing right, that\u2019s a pull-up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When a pass was thrown ahead to Bronny in front of the Lakers\u2019 bench in the fourth quarter, LeBron yelled, \u201cKnock it down!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bronny did, drilling a three-pointer. He did this despite nursing a sore hip after falling hard to the court earlier in the quarter.<\/p>\n<p>           <img id=\"yt-img-_N2YyLU_tu4\" class=\"absolute\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/_N2YyLU_tu4\/hqdefault.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>                 <\/p>\n<p>Having coached up his son enough, LeBron left with about five minutes remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Late in the first quarter, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/gleague.nba.com\/player\/1629647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Darius Bazley<\/a> blocked a shot and took off down court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo Baz,\u201d LeBron James uttered. \u201cGo Baz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Bazley did, finishing with a dunk.<\/p>\n<p>Bazley had a complete night, producing a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He also had five blocked shots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I would show all my shows are on the defensive end,\u201d Bazley said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to prove that I can switch one through five. I can be in the right spots, protect the rim, all that type of stuff. Offensively, just doing what\u2019s asked \u2014 offensive rebounding. Like you said, being a screener, creating advantages for other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even with a sore ankle that was taped after the game (Harding said he would be fine), Bazley left an impression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBazley is an amazing defender,\u201d Harding said. \u201cHe can guard on-ball. He can guard the point guard. He can guard the center. He does a great job off the ball. Sometimes defenders are great on-ball and not on-ball and vice versa, but he can do everything. He\u2019s long. We need him for every position and they were huge blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Etc.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/1642261\/dalton-knecht\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dalton Knecht<\/a>, who said he suffered cramps in both his legs during Thursday night\u2019s game against the Mavericks, didn\u2019t play Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The crowd inside the Thomas &amp; Mack Center began to stir a few seconds before the Lakers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[8091,31112,7,3022,2575,27778,142,4034,1698,300,4044,31109,31113,31110,251,150,4033,4043,6,31111,65,4247,2100,31108],"class_list":{"0":"post-167295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-ball","9":"tag-baseline-seat","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bronny","12":"tag-court","13":"tag-darius-bazley","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-lakers","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-lalakers","19":"tag-lebron-james-courtside","20":"tag-left-handed-layup","21":"tag-lindsey-harding","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-losangeleslakers","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-on-ball","28":"tag-point","29":"tag-shot","30":"tag-son","31":"tag-summer-league-show"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114844422963345142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}