A shorthanded Utah Jazz team fell to the Houston Rockets 115-101 in the semifinals of the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas on Sunday, but Monday night’s championship game will still have some Beehive State flair.
That’s because just before the Jazz and Rockets squared off, former Utah State star Sam Merrill and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Brooklyn Nets 102-99 to advance.
Both the Cavaliers and Rockets are undefeated at 5-0 this week in Las Vegas.
Merrill has been excellent throughout the entire event, as he averaged 18.7 points per game in the first three contests. He sat out the fourth one but came back Sunday to score 19 points and added five assists, four rebounds and a steal in a team-high 36 minutes.
Cleveland won Sunday as the NBA is using the dramatic “Elam Ending” in overtime during summer league. With the teams tied at 94, the target score was 101, and Isaiah Mobley (the brother of Cavs budding star Evan Mobley) sealed the deal with a bucket.
Merrill, who starred at Bountiful High before going to Utah State, is trying to show that he deserves a spot on Cleveland’s roster next season.
Last season, he played primarily for the Cavs’ NBA G League team after being the first overall pick in the 2022 G League draft, but he signed a contract with Cleveland in March for the remainder of the campaign.
As far as the Jazz are concerned, they played Sunday without Ochai Agbaji, Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, Johnny Juzang, Brice Sensabaugh and Luka Samanic.
After the teams were tied at the end of the first quarter, the Rockets won the second by 12 and didn’t look back, with Utah only getting as close as within seven in the fourth quarter.
Monday’s championship game between the Cavs and Rockets is slated to tip off at 7 p.m. MT and can be seen on ESPN.