The Nuggets jumped off to a good 3-0 pre-tournament start in the Las Vegas Summer League. This record granted them the No. 3 seed in the annual summer tournament that showcases potential NBA stars of the future. Denver received a bye for the first day of the tournament and will play the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night.
The #Nuggets are a 3 seed in the Summer League tourney!
We'll get the winner of Hawks/Heat on Thursday at 6:30pm MT. pic.twitter.com/FqEoofh2I3
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) July 15, 2015
In their first game on July 10, the Nuggets beat the Hawks 86-71 in pre-tournament warm-up games. Emmanuel Mudiay scored 11 points, along with five rebounds and four assists, in his NBA debut. The Nuggets went on to beat the Sacramento Kings 98-76 and the Miami Heat 86-83.
Now that the actual tournament has started, can the Nuggets once again come together to beat the Hawks? Mudiay has been the name for the Nuggets that has been in the headlines thus far in the summer league. His play against the Hawks, Kings and Heat was very impressive.
Mudiay finished with 19 points and 10 assists against Sacramento. However, there was help from Ian Clark with 19 points and 16 points from Erick Green.
In the Heat game, Mudiay had 10 points and eight assists including one to Ian Clark, who buried a 3-pointer to give the Nuggets the lead with 1.4 seconds left in the game.
The Nuggets are working very well as a team thus far in the summer league and if this continues, then their stint in the Summer League Tournament will last throughout the weekend. A Summer League champion being crowned on Monday, July 20.
Sabrina Naccarato, a Mile High Sports intern and MSU-Denver student, contributed to this report