Notes from a trip to the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.Kevin Love looked like the real deal in Las Vegas, manhandling the competition en route to averaging a league-high 13.5 boards a game. He would have finished with more, too, had he not played just 18 minutes in his final game due to a sore left Achilles. Wearing a bag of ice on his shoulder and on his left foot after Saturday's game, Love talked with me about what he needs to work for the rest of the summer.
Matt Watson: Has this experience meet your expectations?
Kevin Love: I adjusted pretty well. I still need to pick up on a lot of defensive aspects of the game, but other than that, I rebounded the ball well, shot the ball pretty well from the field and got to know a couple of my teammates I'm going to play with next year. So overall I think it was successful. I just need to ice my ankle a little bit and I'll be fine.
MW: Was there anything that now you know you have to work on a little bit more?
KL: Definitely the defense. I think that as every rookie would say, the biggest thing they have to improve on is the defense. That's going to have to be key for me before training camp and getting ready for the regular season.
MW: Who do you think has stood out the most?
KL: I say Jerryd Bayless. ... I think he comes off ball screen great and uses his body. He might be a little undersized, maybe not for the point guard position, but he comes off ball screens looking to shoot, looking to make plays, so I thought he was very impressive.
MW: What do you expect to do for the rest of the summer?
KL: Stay in shape. I'm going to try to come into training camp the best shape that I possibly can, [try] to stay injury-free and try to help this team as best I can. I need to definitely work on defense, like I keep mentioning, get tapes, keep working with Kevin McHale and just learning different things about the game that I need to improve on.
