NBA Summer League notes: Brandon Williams steps up for Portland, Bennedict Mathurin becomes ‘Agent Double-Zero’

LAS VEGAS — The attention during the Portland Trail Blazers’ 81-78 loss to the Detroit Pistons on the opening night of NBA Summer League at Thomas and Mack Center on Thursday was focused around the first-round draft picks, Shaedon Sharpe and Jaden Ivey.

Sharpe exited the game with a shoulder injury and didn’t return, but former Arizona point guard Brandon Williams picked up the slack, recording 15 points on 4-for-12 shooting from the field, four rebounds and four assists, albeit with three turnovers and 0-for-5 shooting from 3-point range. He also made 7 of 10 free throws.

“I thought Brandon played well,” said Portland Summer League coach Steve Hetzel. “They were switching and kind of got stagnant, had one too many turnovers. We’ll watch the film and learn how to better execute against the switching.”

Hetzel says he was impressed with Williams’ knack for driving in the lane, and wants the 22-year-old guard to be an “aggressive player and want the ball in the paint.”

“At the end of the game, you saw him in the paint and he’s got great footwork around the rim, and I’d like to see him attack and play downhill and just try to distribute from there,” Hetzel said.

Williams was unavailable for media availability after the game on Thursday, but plans to speak with the Star this weekend. The 6-foot-2-inch combo guard is entering his second season in the NBA after leaving the UA prior to the pandemic-influenced 2020-21 season. Williams received All-Pac-12 Freshman Team honors in 2019. Later that year, he underwent surgery for a congenital condition in his right knee, which has impacted his basketball career going back to his days at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, California.

After sitting out for a year, Williams declared for the 2021 NBA draft, but went undrafted and played for the Westchester Knicks, the G League affiliate of the New York Knicks. When the NBA was peppered league-wide with positive COVID-19 cases in the winter, Williams signed a 10-day contract with Portland, then averaged 12.9 points, 3.9 assists, 3.1 rebounds in 24 games for the Trail Blazers this past season. Williams had six 20-plus-point performances during the 2022 season, including a 27-point outing against the Timberwolves.

With Sharpe out, Williams and Keon Johnson, who led the team with 21 points on 8 for 17 shooting, carried the load for Portland, but Ivey’s 20 points and Pistons center Isaiah Stewart’s near double-double of 13 points and nine rebounds gave Detroit the edge.

“It says a lot about him as a person, with the adversity he’s had to go through,” Hetzel said of Williams. “To be able to work and get himself back to this level — he’s a high-level player.”

Portland faces the Pelicans on Saturday night at Thomas and Mack Center at 7 p.m. for its second game of NBA Summer League, which will be televised on ESPN2.

A rare number

00 — Bennedict Mathurin’s jersey number for the Pacers. Mathurin is the 50th player in NBA history to wear No. 00, and the second in Pacers history, joining former Oregon Duck Aaron Brooks.

Mathurin is also the third ex-Wildcat to wear the number in the NBA. Aaron Gordon held the number during his entire stint with Orlando, before changing it to No. 50 when he was dealt to the Nuggets. Point guard Mike Bibby wore No. 00 for the Wizards in 2011.

The most successful No. 00 in NBA history was Robert Parrish, who was a nine-time All-Star and four-time champion with the Celtics.

N’Diaye remembers ‘the dunk’

He wasn’t playing in the game, but Mamadou N’Diaye was once again the tallest person on the court for the Magic-Rockets game Thursday.

The 7-foot-6-inch N’Diaye, a Senegal native and former standout for the UC Irvine Anteaters, is assisting the Magic this summer with player development, “helping out with the bigs.” N’Diaye, a two-time Big West Defensive Player of the Year, last played professionally in Mexico in 2020.

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N’Diaye and UC Irvine lost to Arizona in McKale Center during the 2014-15 season, and he was on the receiving end of a posterizing dunk by 6-7 forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

“I just knew I had him once I saw him turn slow. I went up and jumped, and from there, the rest was history,” Hollis-Jefferson said then. “I definitely told my teammates I was going to dunk on him. And I think that’s my cousin, by the way. Seriously. My uncle’s last name is N’Diaye.”

Ex-Wildcat Gabe York, who is playing for the Pacers this summer, said Hollis-Jefferson “told us at some point in the game he was going to dunk on him.”

“I always get hyped for situations like that. That was definitely a big-time play,” York said.

Nearly eight years later, how does N’Diaye remember the dunk?

“My boy!” N’Diaye said of Hollis-Jefferson on Thursday. “That was a great dunk. Great dunk. Usually that doesn’t happen for guys playing against me, but it was a great dunk. Now he can live with that for the rest of his life.”

The big number

3 — UA connections with the Trail Blazers this summer, including Williams. Other Portland Wildcats include Tucson native Matt Brase, who is the grandson of late UA coaching icon Lute Olson. Brase, 40, is entering his second season on Chauncey Billups’ staff in Portland. The third UA alumnus with Portland is assistant general manager Mike Schmitz, who joined the franchise this summer after serving as ESPN’s NBA draft expert since 2017. The 32-year-old Schmitz, a 2012 UA graduate who is well-connected in the international basketball realm, will have a player evaluation role with Portland.

‘Can you dig it?’

Less than a mile away from Thomas and Mack Center in a plaza stands Shaquille O’Neal’s “Big Chicken” restaurant, which opened in late 2018.

The NBA legend and basketball personality has now opened his fried chicken franchise in nine states.

Items on the menu include tenders, nuggets, salads and a variety of chicken sandwiches, including the “Charles Barkley,” which is a chicken sandwich with mac and cheese, fried onions and roasted barbecue aioli piled on. The “Shaq Attack” chicken sandwich has pepper jack cheese, jalapeño slaw and chipotle barbecue sauce. For dessert, Big Chicken has ice cream sandwiches, soft-serve cones, cookies and a few shakes, including a peach cobbler shake.

A “Can you dig it?” sign is placed right above the cash register and entrance to the kitchen, a phrase famously said by O’Neal at a Lakers championship parade.

Faces in the crowd

NBA Summer League draws the stars to Las Vegas to watch the next wave of talent.

Notable NBA figures spotted by the Star so far include Jerry West, Damian Lillard, Chauncey Billups, Tyronn Lue, John Wall, Kyle Kuzma, Jusuf Nurkic, Anfernee Simons, Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley, Justise Winslow, Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac.