Blazers, Lakers in summer title game for second straight year

While Hart is a leading candidate for MVP of the entire summer league, he said he’s not worried about following in the footsteps of Lonzo Ball, who was awarded the honor last season.

“It’s a testament to the hard work I put in this off season, but I don’t go for individual accolades, that’s never been a reason why I played this game — I play this game to win,” said Hart, who is averaging 24.1 through six games. “If we win, that’s the biggest thing.”

It won’t be easy, though, as Portland (6-0) has three players back from last year’s squad, including Las Vegas-native Zach Collins, along with Caleb Swanigan and Jake Layman.

“We all want to win out here, we’ve gotten this far so why go home with a loss,” said Layman, who is averaging 14 points after the first six games. “It’s fun for us to play them again, we had a tough loss last year, didn’t have our best game. So I think we’re all excited to get back out there and get a win this year.”

For Collins, he’s looking for redemption personally, after struggling last summer in his hometown and getting injured before the championship, then enduring the rigors of a rugged rookie season.

And nothing would mean more for him than to win a pro championship, albeit a summer league title, in front of friends and family.

“The team took care of business and got to the championship and I had to go back to Portland to get better so I wasn’t a part of it; technically this is my first year,” said Collins.