{"id":697299,"date":"2026-04-04T05:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697299\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:31:21","slug":"dalton-knecht-south-bay-lakers-beat-vipers-without-bronny-james-to-advance-in-g-league-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/697299\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Knecht, South Bay Lakers Beat Vipers Without Bronny James to Advance in G League Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Los Angeles Lakers&#8217; G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, have moved onto the Western Conference Finals after defeating the Rio Grande Valley Vipers 112-97 on Friday at home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Five players scored 11 or more points, with former Gonzaga standout big man Drew Timme leading the way with 26 alongside eight rebounds and five assists. Dalton Knecht, the Lakers&#8217; first-round pick in 2024, enjoyed a 24-point, 13-rebound double-double. Kobe Bufkin, the No. 15 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks, added 18 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">South Bay was without guard Bronny James, who is currently with the L.A. Lakers on the road as the team prepares to play the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/basketball.realgm.com\/player\/Bronny-James\/GameLogs\/117543\/D-League\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">South Bay has won<\/a> its last 15 games with James on the court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">For the Vipers, Daishen Nix led all scorers with 35 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">South Bay will now host the Stockton Kings on Sunday, with the winner going to the best-of-three G League Finals. The Osceola Magic and Greensboro Swarm will also play Sunday to determine the Eastern Conference&#8217;s winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers&#8217; G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, have moved onto the Western Conference Finals&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-697299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116344801484014905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697299","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=697299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}