Lakers vs. Blazers in Summer League finals

Wash. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers will meet in the NBA Summer League championship for a second straight season.

Last year Kyle Kuzma dropped a game-high 30 points to lead the Lakers to a 110-98 victory over Portland.

This year it’ll be MVP-candidate Josh Hart — one of two returning players from last year’s team — looking to earn a second straight title for the Lakers (6-0). Alex Caruso is also back for Los Angeles.

But for Hart, who didn’t play in the 2017 title game, he is not looking at it as a two-peat, given the complexion of this year’s squad is different.

“Our identity is totally different, the make-up is totally different, that team last year we had three first-rounders and a second rounder, so the make-up was totally different and how we played was totally different,” Hart said. “This team is tough, is gutty and determined to win. I came here to win, I came here to dominate and that’s what I want to do tomorrow.”

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.” /