Former Wildcats lead Rockets past Nuggets

Chase Budinger scored 24 points to help lift Houston to a 82-75 victory over Denver in the first game of the day Wednesday at the NBA Vegas Summer League at Cox Pavilion.

Budinger’s former Arizona teammate Jordan Hill had 13 points and 14 rebounds for Houston.

J.R. Smith struggled mightily for the Nuggets. The established veteran is playing because he just happened to be rehabbing an ankle injury in Las Vegas and figured summer league games were as good as any other rehab.

He went 2 of 12 from the floor and finished with nine points as Denver suffered its first loss of the event.

Laurence Ekperigin paced the Nuggets with 21 points.

Future summer leaguer?

UNLV guard Anthony Marshall was here taking in the opening game of the day with former teammate Steve Jones.

The sophomore-to-be certainly has the potential to compete in this league in a few years, especially if he continues to develop as much as he did in his freshman season.

Marshall was recognized by many fans as soon as he walked in the door. He was acknowledging fans and had a bit of a bounce in his step.

His attitude was immediately mocked by Jones on Twitter.

“I wish the world could see (Anthony Marshall’s) swagger when he walks into summer league. I feel like I'm not worthy to be in the room,” Jones tweeted.

Marshall immediately responded, setting off a string of humorous messages between the two from up in the stands at Cox Pavilion.

Marshall (ant_marz) and Jones (stevejones20) are two of the most active Twitter users from the UNLV basketball program and Jones in particular is quite humorous

That’s so Summer League

Comedian Rondell Sheridan is in the front row on the baseline opposite the Houston bench.

If you don’t know who he is, you probably don’t have kids.

Then again, I don’t have kids and I spotted him right away.

Sheridan started as a stand-up comic, but is best known for his roles on the Disney Channel shows, “That’s So Raven” and “Cory in the House.”

Yes, I know that off the top of my head. Let’s just leave it at that.