Young’s buzzer-beater lifts Grizzlies

Sam Young hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the buzzer sounded to give Memphis a 67-64 win over Milwaukee after a dramatic final sequence of an NBA Vegas Summer League game at Cox Pavilion on Tuesday evening.

The Grizzlies led by six points with 20 seconds remaining, but Larry Sanders hit a pair of 3-pointers for the Bucks and Memphis went 0-for-4 from the free-throw line.

Sanders’ second 3-pointer tied the game with 0.7 seconds remaining and the game appeared to be destined for overtime.

But Young caught the ball at the top of the key and calmly swished it through the rim.

Young finished with 15 points for Memphis. The 3-pointer was the first successful attempt from downtown for the team in the game.

Sanders finished with a game-high 22 points for Milwaukee. Deron Washington added 16 points, and Tiny Gallon had eight points and 11 rebounds.

Over at the Thomas & Mack Center, the Lakers fell to 0-4 at the event with a 90-84 loss to Sacramento.

DeMarcus Cousins had 19 points and 12 rebounds for Sacramento, his second double-double in as many games here. Donte Greene added 17 points for the Kings.

D.J. Strawberry had 17 points to lead the Lakers, while Michigan alum Coutney Sims finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds.

The Experiment

It would be wrong to compare the Grizzlies experiment of trying OJ Mayo at point guard to Frankenstein’s monster, because at least that thing had some good qualities.

Mayo is here to work on ball handling, distribution and controlling the pace of the game as the team tries to determine the viability of moving Mayo to the point.

He turned the ball over eight times in his debut on Monday night, and coughed it up seven more times today. Mayo had three assists in Tuesday’s game.

But the stats don’t tell the story. Granted, it’s only two games. But Mayo looks completely out of place and appears to be thinking far too much about what he’s supposed to be doing.

Mayo has always been the go-to scorer on every team he’s ever played on in his life.

It seems far too late in his basketball life to ask him to be a different type of player.

Mayo looked truly comfortable on only two possessions. Those were late in the game when he got the ball on the wing and needed to look to score.

Once, he went to the baseline and hit a fade-away jumper. The next time he drove and drew a foul before finishing an acrobatic layup.

That’s what he does. He’s a scorer. Sure, he may be able to learn some of the intricacies of the point guard spot over time.

But why would the Grizzlies waste some of the prime years of one of their young stars trying to make him something he’s not?

Showing a new dimension

Sanders hit two 3-pointers in the final 20 seconds to put Milwaukee in a position to send the game to overtime.

That would be half as many shots from behind the arc as he hit in his entire college career.

At VCU, Sanders was a dominant post player and rarely stepped outside. He made zero in both his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He went 4 of 16 from long-range this past season before declaring himself eligible for he draft after his junior year.

Apparently, he’s trying to show the Bucks that he’s added a new wrinkle to his game.

He was the 15th overall pick of the draft by Milwaukee last month, but if teams had known about the center’s ability to step outside and knock down 3-pointers at will, he may have been selected even higher.

If you really need action

I guess it really is true that some people will bet on anything.

The Las Vegas Hilton has been posting lines for these summer league games. It’s not too crazy, considering the players are known commodities and the games are on television.

But, it is difficult to make a wager when you see things like what happened this morning.

JR Smith just decided to show up and play for Denver. There was very little warning of Smith’s appearance.

Bettors that flipped on the game, or even worse, stopped by the Hilton on the way to Cox Pavilion this morning and bet the Bulls, had to be in shock when Denver’s starting backcourt was announced as Ty Lawson and and JR Smith.

All of a sudden, that +6.5 didn’t look so good.

In the end, having the games on the board just provides one more opportunity to make wagers during one of the slowest betting weeks of the year.

But with so few wagering options this week, maybe it should be the one week you take a break from betting on sports.

That being said, I’ll be rushing over to the Hilton on my way here tomorrow to check out the first-half total on the Knicks-Raptors game.

Familiar sight

With the Lakers taking on the Kings over in the Thomas & Mack, attendance was extremely light for the Grizzlies-Bucks game at Cox Pavilion.

Memphis should be used to the sparsely populated arena.

The Grizzlies have all kinds of trouble drawing fans to their regular-season home games.

In fact, Review-Journal writer Tristan Aird joked that maybe the Grizzlies brought some of the empty seats with them from Memphis.

Fan Friendly?

Chris Webber was handling the color commentating duties on NBATV for the Milwaukee-Memphis game. Several kids rushed over to ask for his autograph at halftime and the former NBA and University of Michigan star happily obliged.

As he was signing, a rogue security guard came over and took it upon himself to force all the kids to leave.

Relax, sir.

If the players can’t or don’t want to sign, they won’t do it. You don’t have to be a hero.