July 15, 2026, 9:36 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
Ohio State’s<\/a> Bruce Thornton continues to use the NBA Summer League as a platform to show he is ready for the next level.<\/p>\n Thornton<\/a> turned in another composed and efficient performance in the Houston Rockets<\/a>‘ 90-64 win<\/a> over the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>. Thornton finished with 18 points, two rebounds, four assists in 26 minutes, which makes it his third straight game scoring in double figures to open summer league.<\/p>\n Through three games, Thornton has produced 27<\/a>, 17<\/a>, and now 18 points while also filling out the rest of the box score. Thornton’s three-game start has him mentioned as one of the true breakout rookies of the NBA Summer League thus far.<\/p>\n Tuesday’s matchup offered the chance for Thornton to play against one of the other breakout stars and it did not disappoint. Labaron Philon Jr., the rookie drafted out of Alabama<\/a>, had 17 points and 4 assists as well.<\/p>\n Thornton’s ability to be a big-time scorer in the first game, and then more all-around box score filler in the following games gives Ohio State fans confirmation of what they already knew about their former captain. Thornton will do whatever it takes to help his basketball team win. His play in summer league will force the Rockets coaching staff to re-evaluate how big of a role Thornton will have on next season’s team.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Now people outside Columbus are starting to realize that the Houston Rockets may have found themselves an absolute gem in the second round with their selection of the Ohio State legend.<\/p>\n Contact\/Follow us\u00a0@BuckeyesWire<\/a>\u00a0on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on\u00a0Facebook\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion.\u00a0Follow Sunny on X:@<\/a>thesunnyv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 15, 2026, 9:36 p.m. ET Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton continues to use the NBA Summer League as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,72400,7,6,678,207,3817,94730,87222,73480,72404,72457,72458,72452,72696,72559,72444,72422,78558,72405,72475,72406,72403],"class_list":["post-787762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-sourcebuckeyes-wire","tag-sstssportscollegebuckeyesmens-basketball","tag-sstsnmens-basketball","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagbig-10-hub","tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagfacebook","tag-taghouston-rockets","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagnba-summer-league","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116927531822179424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787762","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=787762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}