Lakers headed to second straight Summer League title game

LAS VEGAS — Josh Hart scored 37 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 112-109 doubleovertime victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday in the semifinals of the NBA Summer League.

Los Angeles advanced to the championship game for a second straight year after winning the 2017 title behind game MVP Kyle Kuzma and league MVP Lonzo Ball.

The Lakers will play the winner of the second semifinal between Portland and Memphis.

“That was a tough, gut-it-out win ... it was a battle,” Hart said. “This team is tough, it’s gutty and we’re determined to win.”

Xavier Rathan-mayes made the play of the game when he snatched a loose ball and fed Jeff Ayres with a pretty touch pass under the basket with 45 seconds left in the second overtime. Rathanmayes followed Ayres’ layin with a slashing lay-up to put the Lakers up 110106 with 22 seconds left.

“I got great guys around me in Josh and Svi (Mykhailiuk), guys that can make plays and score the basketball, it’s my job just to contribute and do the little things, knock down shots when I need to and run the offense,” Rathan-mayes said. “That was part of it, I was able to get a (loose ball), get a touch pass to Jeff where he was able to get a dunk. And I knew they were gonna load on Josh, I just told him to come to my side, they did that, Collin (Sexton) went over and doubled and I was able to knock down a shot. It was big for us.”

Cleveland’s Billy Preston missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.