EL SEGUNDO, CA – On the second night of a back-to-back, the South Bay Lakers fell behind early and couldn’t come back as they suffered their first loss of the season, 126-116, to the Texas Legends. South Bay (3-1) was led by Scott Machado, who came off the bench to score a career-high 32 points to go along with 11 assists, but the Lakers were off from the free throw line (18-29) as they failed to complete the comeback.
Texas (2-1) got off to a hot start in the first quarter, 44-28, behind 13 points from Donald Sloan. The Legends led by as many as 25 points in the first period, before three consecutive triples for South Bay cut the lead to 16 after one. Texas extended their lead in the second quarter to go into the half with a 69-49 lead.
Machado caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 16 of his 32 points, to get the Lakers within nine, as South Bay shot 60.9% from the field. Machado continued to lead the way in the fourth, as the Lakers clawed back to get within two points behind a flurry of threes, but the Texas backcourt of Sloan and Justin Dentmon combined for 17 points to put the game out of reach.
Sloan (30 points, six rebounds, seven assists) and Dentmon (21 points, four rebounds, five steals) paced the Legends while Jameel Warney added 20 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Johnathan Motley (13 points, four rebounds), Kyle Collinsworth (12 points, 13 rebounds) and J.J. Avila (10 points, three rebounds) also scored in double figures for the Legends.
Machado played his best game of the season, but South Bay got valuable contributions all-around. Thomas Bryant scored 15 points, Stephaun Branch came off the bench with 14 points and eight rebounds and Travis Wear grabbed another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. South Bay’s starting backcourt of Alex Caruso (11 points four assists) and Demarcus Holland (10 points, five rebounds) also scored in double-digits for the Lakers.
The South Bay Lakers will look to get back on track when they hit the road for a matchup with the Iowa Wolves on Wednesday, November 15 at 5:00.
The NBA G League’s South Bay Lakers, the first franchise in G League history to be owned by an NBA team (Los Angeles Lakers), will return for its 11th season of competition in 2017-18. The Lakers franchise has established itself as a top producer of NBA-ready talent, totaling 26 NBA Call-Ups and developing 19 Lakers assignment players since the inaugural 2006-07 season. Last season, the Lakers returned to the playoffs for the third time in the last four years and produced the league MVP in guard Vander Blue. The Lakers have claimed three division titles and have twice competed in the NBA G League Finals, most recently in 2015-16.
