'MVP' Larry Nance Jr. steals show in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — The game started with a near-capacity Thomas & Mack Center at a fever pitch for a highly-anticipated matchup between No. 1 pick Ben Simmons and No. 2 pick Brandon Ingram. It ended with another former No. 2 pick, D’Angelo Russell, demonstrating he has ice in his veins with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
But in between, there was only one player who received “M-V-P” chants during the Los Angeles Lakers‘ win over the Philadelphia 76ers: Larry Nance Jr., who was picked 25 spots after Russell in the 2015 draft.
“First of all, if anybody was the MVP, it was D’Angelo, but I appreciated the chants,” Nance said.
It would have been hard to imagine any positive chants for Nance after a first half that saw him finish with more turnovers (four) than points (three).
“My energy was down, for some reason I just didn’t have it,” Nance said of his first-half struggles. “Coach [Jesse Mermuys] pulled me aside and said ‘C’mon man, it’s a different half, new ballgame, we’re going to win this game,’ and it just clicked.”
Things turned around quickly in the second half, when Nance put up 10 of his 13 points and grabbed 7 of his 8 rebounds to spark a Lakers comeback from 16 points down. He also finished with 7 steals, 4 assists and 4 blocks, doing a little bit of everything for the Lakers.
“He was awesome,” said Mermuys, a Lakers assistant leading the summer league staff. “I played him 35 minutes in a 40-minute game. He was dog tired at the end, but I wasn’t going to take him out. He had earned those minutes to be able to finish it out.
“And the lift that he gave us in that run, we had taken some major punches. Our offense was brutal. Their pressure was really taking us out of everything we were trying to do. And he gave us a lift — the big-time dunks were an incredible lift to us, obviously, the three he made was huge. And his toughness and energy — unsung hero of the game, no doubt.”
Nance, the son of former dunk contest champion Larry Nance threw down a pair of highlight-reel slams, both coming off plays he started by grabbing a defensive rebound and pushing the ball. The second-year forward says he believes that could be a much bigger part of his game going forward.
“We have the freedom to do almost whatever we want now,” he said. “Coach has given me his blessing to push the ball up the court, take the ball off the rim and push it up the court. If they commit to me, I’ll kick it. If they don’t, I’m coming down the lane. It’s a position that I love playing. I love going downhill with the ball, and I hope to continue to play like that.”
Russell had high praise for the way Nance played in Saturday’s game, and what he means for the Lakers’ improvement going forward.
“He’s a winning piece on a winning team,” the point guard said. “Every team needs a guy like Larry. He’s always positive. He’s one of the most positive guys I know. He’s always positive. I don’t know. He’s just a great guy off the court and then on the court, he’s a dog. So it leads up to him just playing hard. All his plays are like motor plays and just getting everybody going, setting great screens for the point guards or the guards coming off screens. He just knows how to play.”
Rookie center Ivica Zubac said Nance’s energy and enthusiasm are a huge part of what he brings to the team.
“It really means a lot. Every time somebody is down, he comes to that guy and helps him,” Zubac said. “You feel better after that and you play better.”
As for those MVP chants, Nance said it made him feel like a Lakers legend — if only for a moment.
“I felt like Kobe [Bryant] for a little bit,” he said. “Although, I missed the free throw. It got to me.”
