LAS VEGAS — In typical Las Vegas Summer League fashion, the biggest game played on Friday night didn’t take place on the Thomas and Mack Center hardwood, but adjacent to it.
After a long day spent between the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels’ air-conditioned basketball oasis and the 110-degree desert heat, the approximately half-full crowd in the 18,000-seat arena began to grow weary. With seven games played between the facility’s two courts and just one to go, it felt like the evening’s intrigue had all but expired.
But as the clock ticked towards 7 p.