3 observations after Bassey, Queen stand out in Sixers’ first summer win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Sixers ensured Wednesday night that they’ll leave Salt Lake City with at least one win under their belt.
The team improved to 1-1 in summer league play with an 86-82 victory over the Jazz in a 40-minute contest. Charles Bassey (17 points, nine rebounds) and Trevelin Queen (15 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals) were standouts.
The Sixers’ final game in Utah will be Thursday at 6 p.m. ET against the Thunder. They’ll begin play in the Las Vegas summer league on Saturday.
Here are observations on their first victory of the 2022 summer:
Queen makes his first impression
With Paul Reed, Isaiah Joe and Jaden Springer (reconditioning) out, Queen debuted.
The Sixers called the game’s first play for the 6-foot-6 wing and he took full advantage of the opportunity, flaring off of a Bassey screen and sinking an open three-pointer.
A few minutes later, Queen tossed an alley-oop for Bassey and was glad to see the 21-year-old reach back to throw it down.
Queen connected with Bassey again in the second quarter, bringing the ball briskly up the court and then finding the second-year big man for a short-range push shot. He’s at home in the open floor.
The final few minutes of the second weren’t pristine for Queen, who missed a couple of floater attempts, committed a turnover trying to hit Bassey on a bounce pass, and air balled a three on the first half’s last shot. Of course, neither the positive nor the negative plays are worth reading into much in early July.
Queen’s last two points Wednesday stemmed from a smart backdoor cut. His lefty layup put the Sixers up by five points with 34.2 seconds left.
A natural feel for how to get into good areas is an excellent skill for an aspiring NBA role player. Queen will aim to keep providing evidence that he possesses it.
Brown strong defensively, exits early
As you’d hope from a 25-year-old two-way contract player, Charlie Brown Jr. was impactful right away.
Brown nabbed a steal in the backcourt, scored a put-back layup, and slammed in a fast-break dunk after a smooth give-and-go with fellow two-way player Julian Champagnie.
Other than that play, Champagnie again was unimpressive. Through two summer league games, the rookie from St. John’s has missed 14 of 16 field goals and 3 of 4 free throws. He got on the board in the third quarter with a fourth-chance layup.
Brown wasn’t perfect defensively, conceding an and-one layup to Justin Robinson after picking him up full court, but it’s obvious he’s an NBA talent on that end of the floor. The Philadelphia native still needs to prove himself offensively, and especially as an outside shooter. He was 0 for 2 from three-point range and the Sixers had a rough night on that front overall without their top threat in Joe, going 4 for 22.
At the end of the third quarter, Brown lay on the floor after it appeared he was unintentionally struck in the face. On the ESPN broadcast, Holly Rowe reported that Brown told teammates he was fine, but that the Sixers held him out from returning.
Spotlight on Bassey
Though Bassey tried no threes, he displayed decent shooting touch and tossed in a baby hook off of a post-up in the first quarter.
The Sixers surely won’t run their regular-season offense through him anytime soon, but Bassey is clearly capable of more than mere dunks and layups. Early in the third quarter, Bassey pump faked in the post and then spun free for a lefty hoop.
Asked to defend out to the three-point line, Bassey showed some promise, notching three first-half steals. More importantly, Bassey didn’t tend to look shaky or like a natural target for Utah when he ventured to the perimeter. He could perhaps strengthen his case for NBA rotation minutes by being solid in schemes besides drop coverage.
Bassey strung together a few miscues in the fourth period, getting called for two moving screens and biting on a pump fake. However, he came up with another steal late, choosing the right moment to poke the ball away from Robinson.
Michael Foster Jr. played behind Bassey for a second straight game and posted five points and four rebounds in 12 minutes.