Amile Jefferson falls one rebound shy of double-double in Magic loss

The former Duke Basketball forward, Amile Jefferson, was one rebound shy of a double-double in his first full game of the 2019 NBA Summer League.

Amile Jefferson played his first full 2019 NBA Las Vegas Summer League after after Friday night’s game between the Orlando Magic and the San Antonio Spurs was cut short due to the earthquake.

After coming off the bench on Friday, Jefferson was inserted into the starting lineup on Sunday afternoon against the Denver Nuggets and saw an increase in all aspects of the game.

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Against the Spurs, the former Blue Devil saw 15 minutes accumulating eight points, four rebounds, and two blocks, going 2-for-4 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line.

However, on Sunday the National Champion was on the court for 29 minutes and put up 13 points, nine rebounds, and four steals while shooting 6-of-9 from the floor and drilling his only free throw attempt.

Jefferson was Orlando’s leading rebounder and leading steal-man and was tied for second on the team with the most points on the afternoon.

Seven of the nine rebounds Jefferson grabbed were on the defensive glass, while the remaining two were tenacious offensive rebounds.

Denver went wire-to-wire against Orlando, but the Magic were able to make a late charge, cutting the lead to as little as four with under a minute to play, but the Nuggets held on to win 84-79.

Amile Jefferson is still looking to breakthrough to find consent minutes on an NBA roster with a front court heavy Magic team that features Mo Bamba, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Vucevic, to name a few.

With a 1-1 record in Summer League, the Magic will have Monday off and be back on the court on Tuesday July 9 as Orlando will face the Miami Heat at 4:00pm EST and can be seen on ESPN2.