NBA Summer League: Hammon Guide Spurs to Title

The San Antonio Spurs overcame a 10-point first-half deficit en route to winning the first Samsung NBA Summer League 2015 Championship game Monday evening. The Spurs knocked off the Phoenix Suns by a final score of 93-90 in the finale of the 11-day, 67-game tournament in Las Vegas.

The Lone Star State squad can now add a Summer League trophy to its impressive haul of five Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophies won since the 1998-99 campaign.

Becky Hammon, the first woman to serve as a full-time NBA assistant after Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich added her to his staff for the 2014-15 season, guided the squad to six straight victories after suffering a tournament-opening loss to the New York Knicks way back on July 10.

Jonathon Simmons, who has played for the NBA D-League’s Austin franchise the past two years after initially making the team following an open tryout in 2013, led the Spurs with a team-high 23-point performance. Simmons was selected the Championship game’s MVP after he shot 7-of-14 from the field and with nine of his points coming from the free-throw line.

San Antonio, who trailed by 10, 21-10, late in the first quarter, used a 23-11 run in a span of 7:19 that covered the opening and second stanzas to stake itself to a one-point lead at 33-32. The Western Conference squads would exchange the lead six more times before they headed into the half deadlocked at 39-all.

The third quarter started with the Spurs’ Jarrell Eddie knocking down a 3-pointer just 59 seconds after the resumption of play, which sparked a 17-8 run. That nine-point edge, 56-47, however, was quickly countered by nine straight tallies by Phoenix that restored parity at 59-all with 61 ticks left in the period.

San Antonio broke that fourth and final stalemate with six straight points to claim a 65-59 edge through 30 minutes of action. In addition to that six-point spell, the Spurs scored 14 of the first 21 in the fourth to register their first of two 14-point leads.

Down by nine at 89-80, the Suns made one late push — a 10-4 run — with 24 seconds remaining in regulation to cut their disadvantage to three with a final second 3-pointer by Mike James.

Besides Simmons’ 23 points, San Antonio also got double-figure outputs from Treveon Graham and Kyle Anderson, who scored 22 and 15 points, respectively. Just yesterday, Anderson was tabbed the Samsung NBA Summer League 2015 MVP.

James, who most recently played for Laboral Kuxta in the Spanish League, paced the Suns with a tournament-best 32 points. He was 10-of-18 from the field with three 3-pointers and nine made free throws.

Alex Len (17 points), Archie Goodwin (12) and Devin Booker (10) rounded out the foursome of double-digit scorers for Phoenix, who ended its stay in Las Vegas with a 5-2 overall record.