SAN FRANCISCO — Dalton Knecht found his shooting stroke and the Lakers’ summer league team rallied from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to edge the San Antonio Spurs, 89-88, in their California Classic finale on Tuesday night at the Chase Center.
Darius Bazley finished with a game-high 27 points, including the game-winning dunk on a putback of a Knecht miss with 13.3 seconds left. Bazley, who shot 8 for 10 from the field and 10 for 12 from the free-throw line, also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
Knecht had 25 points and eight rebounds on 9-for-18 shooting (4 for 8 from 3-point range), shaking off a slump that had seen him shoot 5 for 20 overall (0 for 9 from behind the arc) in the Lakers’ first two summer league games.
The Lakers (2-1) trailed 83-69 with 4:44 left but closed the game on a 20-5 run that included a trio of 3-pointers from Knecht. They outscored the Spurs 32-20 in the fourth quarter.
Cole Swider finished with 15 points, four rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots, while shooting 5 for 13 overall (2 for 8 from 3-point range).
Bronny James, still working on his conditioning, had just two points and two steals on 1-for-5 shooting in 15 minutes.
David Jones-Garcia had 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting, six rebounds and five assists to lead the Spurs (1-2).
Second-round draft pick Adou Thiero, who the Lakers selected with the No. 36 pick in last month’s draft, is being held out of all summer league games. He’s in the final stages of his return-to-play process from a left knee ailment he dealt with at Arkansas and is expected to be fully cleared in time for training camp. Undrafted free agent Eric Dixon, who signed a two-way contract with the Lakers after starring at Villanova, has been held out of all three games so far.
The Lakers next travel to Las Vegas for the league-wide summer league event, facing No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks in their opener on Thursday at 5 p.m. PT (ESPN).
The Lakers’ summer league team was coached by assistant coach Beau Levesque during the California Classic, with assistant coach Lindsey Harding set to take over for the games in Las Vegas.