Brandon Ingram: Ingram enjoys playing with Russell

So when Ingram, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft and a forward whom the Lakers believe can help resurrect their fallen franchise, made his Summer League debut here Friday, Russell came up to the 6-foot-9 forward and told him to just relax.

Russell didn’t play well from start to finish, as his poor shooting line testifies. Zubac finished with 7 points on 3-7 shooting, eight rebounds, and a block in 22 minutes, and was a major reason that D’Angelo Russell was able to get hot in the second half, routinely helping free up Russell for open looks with solid high screens.

Dominating the Las Vegas Summer League is one way to make sure you never have to play it in again, as veterans, superstars and elite-level prospects rarely play in what are basically organized scrimmages for developing players and clingers-on. The top selection in the 2016 NBA Draft finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, nearly notching a triple-double. Nance and Russell committed nine of the Lakers’ 13 first half giveaways, but the relatively experienced duo bounced back and led the comeback in the second half.

“Usually when those shots look so good like that, they usually bounce off the rim or they bounce short and you can’t sleep that night”, Russell said of his buzzer-beater.

Every bucket Ingram made was cheered, but his game was much more subtle. The sophomore’s sweet-jumper rang true, and he let the crowd now about the ice coursing through his veins after the game.

“First of all, if anybody was the MVP, it was D’Angelo, but I appreciated the chants”, Nance said.

“For me, it’s always going to be defense”. With less than four minutes in the game, he drilled consecutive jumpers to keep L.A. within three points. “Win or lose, we know what we went through to get to this point”.

Now we just need to work on his interview skills.

And then there was Russell, who provided the latest example of a possible revival in his second season.

He also isn’t letting the dunk get to him.

Zubac joined the ranks of guys like Kendrick Perkins, Brandon Knight, and Timofey Mozgov as dunk victims, and it happened before he even officially played an National Basketball Association game. The loudest basket he hit came with time winding down in the fourth. If they commit to me, I’ll kick it. If they don’t, I’m coming down the lane. “That’s part of his development”.