The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Las Vegas Summer League Day 2

LAS VEGAS — Hoards of NBA fans once again packed the house on Saturday at the Las Vegas Summer League. After closing off the entire upper deck at the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday, the staff apparently felt it prudent to open up a few sections to accommodate the crowds.

That change came in handy halfway through the day, when the cacophonous contingent of Los Angeles Lakers supporters filed in to watch their team take on the young center whom the front office passed up on draft day in June.

Well, that and to chant "LA-RRY! LA-RRY! LA-RRY!" in support of Larry Nance Jr., the Lakers' choice at No. 27 in the 2015 draft.

Matters of importance to the Purple and Gold aside, Day 2 of summer league in Sin City was a veritable smorgasbord of good, bad and ugly performances, just as Day 1 proved to be. Below are the most prominent/glaring entries into each category.

Good: Bobby Three-Ball Comes Up Big For Bulls

Bobby Portis took all of 63 three-pointers during his two seasons at the University of Arkansas. To his credit, he knocked down a solid 36.5 percent of them, including a 14-of-30 showing as a sophomore.

During his pro debut, Portis looked far more comfortable launching from deep than his collegiate stats would indicate. He hit his first three treys during the Chicago Bulls’ 84-71 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves before coming up short on a wide-open look late in the game.

"A couple of our coaches were grumbling about it," said Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg, who was making his own NBA debut of sorts. "I said, 'S--t guys, he’s 3-of-3. Let’s see what he’s got. It’s a heat check. Let him go a little bit.'"

Portis went more than a little bit and not just from beyond the arc. The reigning SEC Player of the Year finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting to go along with seven rebounds.

David Dow/Getty Images

Portis did all that while matched up with Karl-Anthony Towns, who hit just four of his 11 shot attempts on the night.

"We talked about matchups," said Hoiberg. "We said, 'Well, let’s throw him at Karl and see what he’s made of.' And I thought he stepped up to the challenge big time."

Not bad for the No. 22 pick in the 2015 draft, especially going up against the top prospect in his class. With any luck—and some work by Bulls general manager Gar Forman to unclog the club’s crowded frontcourt—Portis could grow into an impact player in the Windy City.

Bad: Okafor Aside, Sixers Stink Up Sin City

In his preview of Saturday’s Las Vegas Summer League action, SB Nation’s Tim Cato warned the world of the Philadelphia 76ers’ lack of noteworthy talent outside of Jahlil Okafor:

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[Besides Jahlil Okafor,] the Sixers' summer league roster is surprisingly barren given their current NBA team, but Okafor was more than enough to make up for that in the Utah Summer League last week, where he impressed with 14 points scored on average in the three games there.

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Cato’s words proved prescient during Philly’s 68-60 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Okafor did fine for himself. The No. 3 pick in the 2015 NBA draft tied for the scoring lead with 19 points (6-of-14 from the field, 7-of-12 from the line), paced all participants in rebounding (11 boards) and added three assists and two blocks for good measure.

Outside of Okafor, though, the Sixers shot an abysmal 25 percent from the field and got to the charity stripe just eight times. Pierre Jackson (15 points) was the only other Philly player to crack double digits in scoring.

David Dow/Getty Images

Even Okafor had his problems. The Chicago native turned the ball over five times and had his shot blocked three times—once by Lakers center Robert Upshaw.

But such potholes in the path of any 19-year-old rookie are more the norm than the exception.

As for Philly’s dearth of summer leaguers with likely NBA futures, that’s no great surprise. One of their promising youngsters, Dario Saric, is still stuck in Europe. Another, Joel Embiid, is likely to miss another season on account of a foot injury that refuses to heal, per ESPN.com.

None of this figures to make suffering Sixers fans feel any better. They may trust the process, but that process probably won’t yield much in the way of enjoyable basketball for a while longer.

Ugly: LaVine Loses Touch With His Jumper

Turnabout is fair play, especially in the Las Vegas Summer League. Just as Zach LaVine.

On Friday, the second-year shooting guard out of UCLA stole the show during the Timberwolves’ 81-68 win over the Lakers, scoring a game-high 24 points and knocking down half of his eight three-point tries. Come Saturday, LaVine’s shot had all but left him. He misfired 15 times in 20 attempts, including an air ball in the waning seconds of the game.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda, LaVine had good reason to be as off as he was:

To be sure, LaVine’s night wasn’t entirely a wash. He got to the line 10 times (making nine) and grabbed nine rebounds for good measure. LaVine, then, seems to understand the importance of finding other ways to impact the flow of a game, especially if the jumper isn’t working.

Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.

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