{"id":758517,"date":"2026-07-12T12:38:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758517\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:38:51","slug":"adou-thiero-finds-balance-on-court-lakers-win-2nd-straight-in-nba-summer-league-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758517\/","title":{"rendered":"Adou Thiero finds balance on court, Lakers win 2nd straight in NBA Summer League \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Adou Thiero loves to fish.<\/p>\n

Although the Lakers wing says he is still searching for the best spots in Los Angeles to cast a line, he and former Lakers center Jaxson Hayes would chat \u2013 not nearly to the point of ad nauseum \u2013 about their love of fishing, sharing the sport from their respective Appalachian-area upbringings.<\/p>\n

For Thiero, the lakes and ponds \u2013 or Leetsdale, Pa., along the Ohio River where he grew up \u2013 are an outlet for expression outside of basketball, he told the Southern California News Group. Through conversations with teammate Austin Reaves<\/a>, golfing is on the 22-year-old\u2019s radar too.<\/p>\n

Fishing requires patience: the wait before the bite and then the following moments of excitement and precision to reel in a catch. Thiero, who is entering his second season with the Lakers after being the franchise\u2019s second-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, is finding his patience on the hardwood during summer league play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s starting to find his pace where he can fit in and be dominant in his own way,\u201d Lakers first-round draft pick Cameron Carr said of Thiero on Friday. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking a lot. Just finding out opportunities to attack, get downhill. I\u2019m proud of that. He\u2019s done a heck of a job. He works so hard, plays so hard. Basketball gods rewarded him.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s paid off. Thiero\u2019s Friday night performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> was one of the best from the opening slate of games in Las Vegas: 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals, two blocked shots and zero turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took what was in front of him,\u201d Lakers summer league coach Ty Abbott said on Friday. \u201cHe attacked matchups. He understood that there was going to be some paint swarming. Those guys are going to try to flood and meet him at the rim and he made the right pass. And then when he started doing that, it started to open up for him and he was able to finish at the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiero continued to roll on Saturday, recording 15 points (on 4-for-12 shooting) in a 91-70 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers now have a 4-1 overall record this summer and a 2-0 record in Las Vegas. Carr did not play on Saturday, suffering a right thumb contusion believed to have happened during Friday\u2019s game, Abbott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t actually have any updates on how severe the injury is, but just to be cautious, (we) held him out tonight and we\u2019ll see what the next steps are,\u201d Abbott said of Carr, who will have at least two days off before the Lakers\u2019 next summer league game on Tuesday night against the Clippers.<\/p>\n

Lakers forward Arthur Kaluma has emerged as one of the best summer league talents who is not on a two-way or guaranteed contract in Las Vegas, scorching Dallas from 3-point range. The 6-foot-7 forward who spent last year with the South Bay Lakers in the G League shot 6 for 11 from behind the arc on his way to a game-high 34 points in a dominant showing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad Arthur is on my team,\u201d said two-way guard Chris Manon, who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds on 4-of-10 shooting.<\/p>\n

Kaluma said he prides himself on being a 3-and-D player and on Saturday, he felt that he was firing on all cylinders from both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come to summer league for opportunity,\u201d Kaluma said. \u201cTo be able to come out here and perform at this level has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiero was often used atop the key during Saturday\u2019s game, providing the Lakers\u2019 first line of defense against a Mavericks team that shot just 39% from the field.<\/p>\n

The Arkansas product, who enjoyed a dinner with his former college coach John Calipari on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, said that Lakers coach JJ Redick wants a point-of-attack on-ball defender. He feels as if he can \u201ccause havoc\u201d on defense and provide that role for the Lakers going forward \u2013 increasing repetitions game by game as a defender after having a delayed start to his rookie season as a knee injury suffered in college kept him out of last year\u2019s summer league entirely.<\/p>\n

Year One in the NBA wasn\u2019t a \u201cfair opportunity,\u201d Thiero said, as he dealt with injuries in what Redick had at times called a \u201cdevelopmental year\u201d for him. Yet, Thiero still appeared in 25 regular-season games and broke into the playoff rotation for six games.<\/p>\n

Now, through summer play and the season ahead, Thiero has a full runway to sculpt a role on a roster that has seen significant offseason changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, coming in from college, you have guys that are very athletic or some guys that are always in the right position,\u201d Thiero said earlier this week, when asked about his discernment of when to exert explosive energy and when to make the right basketball play.<\/p>\n

Thiero continued: \u201cI can use my athleticism better to finish plays, because at this level, everybody is either athletic or everybody has IQ. Everybody is here for a reason. So now I got to understand when to use my athleticism and when to play off, too and play a little bit more slowly. That\u2019s what I\u2019m just figuring out and getting those reps on everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/p>\n

Lakers two-way contract guard Peter Suder had arguably his best game of the summer on Saturday, shooting 5 for 8 from the field for 14 points in 17 minutes off the bench. \u2026<\/p>\n

Forward AK Okereke, a fellow two-way player, had a quieter night, going scoreless but logging five assists, three rebounds, two steals and one block in 18 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Adou Thiero loves to fish. Although the Lakers wing says he is still searching for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[6306,355,99],"class_list":["post-758517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}