The defending NBA G League champion RGV Vipers shot a dismal 30% from the floor, and Mexico City outscored them in each of the four quarters en route to a convincing 120-84 Capitanés victory Sunday to kick off the 2022-23 season.
Louis King paced the Vipers offensively with 23 points on 7-for-16 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds before fouling out. He was one of two Vipers to foul out during the game while three other players had five fouls. Cassius Stanley scored 18 points while Darius Days added 16 points and nine rebounds.
Mexico City, playing its first ever home G League home game, shot 47% from the floor. The Capitanés led by 12 at the half before outscoring the Vipers in the third (27-16) and fourth (35-22) quarters.
Six players scored in double digits for Mexico City, led by Mason Jones with 32 points. Jones was 4-for-5 from the 3-point line and 8-for-11 overall. He was 6-for-7 from the free-throw line and as a team. The Capitanés converted on 25-of-28 free throws (89.3%).
Former Vipers players Gary Clark and Bruno Caboclo earned double-doubles for Mexico City. Clark scored 14 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. Caboclo also scored 14 points and had 13 rebounds to go with three blocked shots.
Overall, Mexico City took 66 shots from the field compared to 99 for the Vipers. RGV attempted 45 3-pointers but only knocked down nine of them.
NBA veteran Willie Cauley-Stein, a 7-foot-center, and Ray Spalding, a 6-10 forward who is recovering from an injury that kept him out from playing all last season with the Rockets and has been working on his conditioning, did not play. Their presence were clearly missed as Mexico City dominated the rebounding, 55-41.
Nearly 7,500 fans were reported in attendance for the first game at the Mexico City Arena.
RGV, the affiliate of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg against the Birmingham Squadron. There will be a G League championship ring presentation during the game and it is the first of three straight Vipers home games. They entertain the Memphis Hustle for a two-game series, first at 7 p.m. Thursday and the second game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Earlier in the week, the Vipers finalized their roster to open the season and announced that Jae Steadman would join Vipers first-year head coach Kevin Burleson as the assistant head coach. Steadman was part of the with the team from 2009-2012. Steadman was part of the first Vipers championship team in 2010.
Steadman was named interim head coach for the UTRGV men’s basketball in February 2021 and was an assistant head coach there to seven years, starting in 2014.