Bronny James scored three points in his return to action after missing a game due to some trace swelling in his left knee as the Lakers’ summer league team concluded play in the California Classic tournament in San Francisco Wednesday with an 80-76 loss to the Miami Heat’s summer league team.
James made 1 of 3 shots and 1 of 2 free throws in 28 minutes, 47 seconds of play, had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers. The Lakers (0-3) outscored Miami by 8 when James was on the court.
First-round draft choice Dalton Knecht led three Lakers in double figures with 20 points while center Colin Castleton added 18 and forward Maxwell Lewis 14.
Castleton and Lewis are the only players on the summer league team to have played for the Lakers in the 2023-24 season. Castleton averaged 1.5 points in 16 games and Lewis 0.3 points in 34 games.
Forward Keshad Johnson and guard Alondes Williams led four Heat players in double figures with 21 points each.
Johnson was a starter on San Diego State’s 2022-23 team that reached the national championship game, then completed his college career at Arizona.
Williams has played eight NBA games over two seasons — one with the Brooklyn Nets in the 2022-23 season and seven with Miami in the 2023-24 season. He was selected as the NBA G League’s most improved player for the 2023-24 season and a first-team all-league selection.
The Lakers will begin play in the NBA Summer League on Friday against the Houston Rockets in Las Vegas.
James, a second-round choice in last month’s draft and oldest son of LeBron James, played his first game as a Laker on Saturday, scoring four points in 21 minutes, 43 seconds in a 108-94 loss to the Sacramento Kings’ team in the California Classic.
James did not play in Sunday’s 92-68 loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The elder James, training in Las Vegas with the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, said before the completion of Saturday’s game that his son’s summer statistics don’t matter.
“I just hope for (him to get) his feet wet in the NBA — the pace of the game, the speed of the game, the physicality of the game,” the elder James said. “But what he does in the California Classic and Summer League, it doesn’t matter if he plays well and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t play well. I just want him to continue to grow. Practices, film sessions, his individual workouts.”
Bronny James made himself eligible for the NBA draft after averaging 4.8 points per game in his lone season at USC. He played 490 minutes over 25 games with six starts for the Trojans. The 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound guard missed the first eight games of the season while recovering from a medical procedure to treat a congenital heart defect.