{"id":780214,"date":"2026-07-07T04:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/780214\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T04:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:54:14","slug":"adou-thiero-sidelined-by-wrist-injury-before-lakers-win-summer-league-game-with-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/780214\/","title":{"rendered":"Adou Thiero sidelined by wrist injury before Lakers win summer league game with Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lakers<\/a> second-year forward Adou Thiero<\/a> missed the Lakers\u2019 California Classic summer league finale Monday because of a right wrist injury.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old suffered the injury while falling in the Lakers\u2019 sudden-death, double-overtime win Sunday, Lakers summer league coach Ty Abbott said Monday, and wore a brace on his right wrist while cheering the Lakers to an 88-84 win<\/a> over the San Antonio Spurs at Chase Center. Thiero\u2019s status for Las Vegas summer league games, which begin Friday for the Lakers, is unclear, Abbott said.<\/p>\n

Thiero kept a towel draped over his right hand for most of the game. Second-year guard Chris Ma\u00f1on started in Thiero\u2019s place and starred with 24 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n

The Lakers re-signed Ma\u00f1on to a two-way contract Saturday primarily for his defense. The 6-foot-4 guard finished second in the G League defensive player of the year voting last season as a rookie.<\/p>\n

But while making three of six three-pointers Sunday and going seven-for-10 from the floor with two assists, Ma\u00f1on showed an improved offensive game. Ma\u00f1on, who averaged 10.3 points per game with the South Bay Lakers last year, said he focused on developing consistency in his three-point shot this summer to prove he\u2019s \u201cnot a black hole out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott said the second-year guard\u2019s growth goes beyond just making shots; Ma\u00f1on has improved his ballhandling and off-ball skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis screening, his ability to get behind the defense and then play in the paint, make the right reads,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cHe\u2019s also done a really, really good job of making the right pass, right? The guys come and screen for him, we get roller behind. And he\u2019s doing a good job of finding, creating that advantage and then keeping the advantage by making the right pass and then playing off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ma\u00f1on, guard Peter Suder and forward AK Okereke have signed two-way deals with the Lakers. The flexible contracts are reserved for young, promising players so they can get valuable playing time with the G League while still providing necessary depth to NBA teams. Last year, the Lakers got standout performances from two-way players Nick Smith Jr. and Drew Timme that contributed to important wins while the team was struggling with injuries.<\/p>\n

Suder was the Mid-American Conference player of the year last season, averaging 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, four assists and 1.3 steals while leading Miami (Ohio) to a 31-0 regular-season record.<\/p>\n

Okereke, who was the last of the group to sign his two-way deal Sunday, took a similar path to the NBA as Ma\u00f1on: three years at Cornell, a graduate transfer year at Vanderbilt, then a two-way contract with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-7, 245-pound forward averaged 9.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and two assists at Vanderbilt, and shot 40 for 100 from three-point range. Getting a two-way contract with the Lakers \u201cmeans everything,\u201d Okereke said, especially after his basketball career stalled heading into college.<\/p>\n

When colleges weren\u2019t recruiting him, Okereke wasn\u2019t sure if he could continue in the sport. It took a prep year after high school for Okereke to hone his skills enough to get on Cornell\u2019s radar. It also left Okereke with \u201ca chip on my shoulder\u201d that continues even with his latest contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand I\u2019m very grateful for this opportunity, but also at the same time, [I] have the confidence that I know I should be here,\u201d said Okereke, who had 20 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers\u2019 three California Classic summer league games. \u201c… Throughout my career, I\u2019ve shown continued progression on a lot of different fronts, and that\u2019s not going to stop here. I\u2019m going to continue to get better and obviously just kind of make my way up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers have a history of turning undrafted players into NBA contributors. Austin Reaves, who was undrafted in 2021, just signed a four-year, $185-million max contract with the team. Finding the team\u2019s next unheralded star begins in summer league and G League games, Abbott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start with putting guys in positions that they\u2019ll be in and then you try to give them a couple of things that may be a little bit outside of what their role with the Lakers would be,\u201d said Abbott, the team\u2019s player development coach. \u201cJust to kind of see where they\u2019re at. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you work with them. You work with them, you invest in them, you build a trust, go to work every day, you try to build those work habits, those professional work habits for those players. \u2026 Try to use all your resources. I think that all of our coaches are willing and capable of getting on the floor with our guys to try to help them to the best of our ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiero, a second-round pick in 2025, is one of the Lakers\u2019 latest projects. Playing in the summer league for the first time after a knee injury kept him out of the important exhibition games last season, Thiero scored 22 points in two California Classic games, shooting 31.6% from the field. After saying he wanted to build up his confidence and consistency with his three-point shooting, Thiero missed all three of his three-point attempts and was just three for six from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

First-round pick Cameron Carr only played in the first half Monday, finishing with five points, one rebound, one assist, one steal, one block and three fouls in 12 minutes and 49 seconds. He sat out of the second half because of a bothersome toenail, Abbott said, but the coach doesn\u2019t anticipate the problem lingering for Carr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lakers second-year forward Adou Thiero missed the Lakers\u2019 California Classic summer league finale Monday because of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[3515,94955,5061,7,94956,4034,1698,300,4044,3112,251,150,4033,4043,33506,6,74820,65,3039,534,5376,30905,94957,1726],"class_list":["post-780214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-adou-thiero","tag-aj-okereke","tag-assist","tag-basketball","tag-former-vanderbilt","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-las-vegas-summer-league","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-manon","tag-nba","tag-peter-suder","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-spurs","tag-steal","tag-summer-league-game","tag-two-way-deal","tag-wrist-injury"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116876913146581307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780214","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=780214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}