Kent Bazemore made the all-tournament team at the Las Vegas summer league. (GETTY IMAGES)

LAS VEGAS — When you win the NBA championship you get to hoist a gold trophy, receive a $100,000 ring, and enjoy a championship parade. When you win the Las Vegas summer league you get to hoist a gold trophy, receive a cherry flavored ring pop from Rick Mahorn, and if the team is extremely generous there could be a parade at the buffet line.

The Golden State Warriors may not be greeted with a championship parade when they return to the Bay Area, but they accomplished something special this summer by going undefeated and winning the inaugural Vegas summer league tournament title.

Two players who truly benefited from the summer circuit were Kent Bazemore and Draymond Green.

Both are second-year players who saw a lot of action during the 2013 playoffs, especially Green. The former Michigan State standout was part of a frontcourt rotation that powered the Warriors to a Western Conference first-round playoff series win over the Denver Nuggets and pushed the San Antonio Spurs to six grueling games in the conference semifinals.

Green looks fitter and slimmer this summer and it showed on the court, bumping his point average from 6 to 12 and appears quicker to the ball. His defense is what earned him major playing time for the Warriors as a rookie, and that part of his game has only gotten better. Look for head coach Mark Jackson to rotate the 6-7, 230-pound Green with David Lee and Harrison Barnes at the forward position.

Prior to emerging as one of the stars of the Vegas summer league, Bazemore was mostly known for his towel waving skills from the bench and token appearances on the court. He did make a memorable reverse layup that put the Warriors ahead during Game 1 of the Spurs playoff series, but was overshadowed by Manu Ginobili’s spectacular 3-pointer in overtime.

With supersub Jarret Jack now in Cleveland, the 6-5 Bazemore should get a long look as the backup point guard as well as shooting guard, and may even play some small forward if Jackson decides to go extra small. The Warriors coach told NBA TV’s David Aldridge that Bazemore will be ready when called upon.

“He’s gonna get a serious look,” Jackson said of Bazemore, who averaged 18 points a game in 30 minutes and was named to the Vegas all-tournament team.

“At the end of the day we’re loaded. We’ve got five perimeter players that are better basketball players today,” Jackson said. “Kent’s a guy who continues to improve, works extremely hard, and he’s gonna stay ready. We’ll see how it pans out, but he’s a guy with a lot of confidence and he has separated himself this summer.”

Bazemore was overlooked coming out of Old Dominion. He went undrafted in 2012 and was the 499th ranked player in 2012-13 according to ESPN.com. To put that into better context, there were only 450 active players in the league last season. That wasn’t lost on Bazemore as he marked “499” on his shoes to remind him of that insult.

Warriors head coach Mark Jackson and guard Steph Curry talk strategy. (GETTY IMAGES)

When you have sharpshooters like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on your roster, it’s hard to identify the Golden State Warriors as a defensive team. But somewhere beneath all the swishes and splashes, the Warriors have become a hard-nosed team that doesn’t mind rolling up its sleeves and getting dirty.

The stats won’t show it but the Warriors have actually played better defense than the San Antonio Spurs in their Western Conference semifinal series. You see Tim Duncan working hard to score against Andrew Bogut, you see Tony Parker’s signature teardrop blocked by Thompson, and he you see Kawhi Leonard struggling to post up against Curry.

Even the Golden State rookies are playing defense.

Forward Harrison Barnes wasn’t known as a great defender coming out of North Carolina, but he’s a good enough athlete to stay with quick guards and strong enough to hold his ground in the low post. Forward Draymond Green played for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, so playing defense comes naturally to him. In Game 2, Green had seven rebounds in 32 minutes. Center Festus Ezeli is raw, but head coach Mark Jackson won’t hesitate to play him in the fourth quarter.

The Warriors may not play lockdown defense like the Boston Celtics or Chicago Bulls, but they are making life very difficult right now for the Spurs.

It starts and ends with Bogut. The 7-foot Aussie is able to play Duncan one-on-one, which allows the rest of the Warriors to stay home and stay attached to the Spurs’ shooters.

Marcus Thompson II wrote this for MercuryNews.com

Warriors center Andrew Bogut was told before the series that he was on his own with Spurs star Tim Duncan, one of the greatest of all-time. Whatever happens, happens. But the help wasn’t coming.

To Bogut, that sounded like Australian for fun.

“I’m fine,” he said after totaling six points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday’s 100-91 Game 2 win. “He’s had games where he’s killed me, and I’ve had games where I’ve guarded him well. You’ve just got to battle against him.”

A major part of the game plan is to play straight up on Duncan. The Warriors don’t mind if he scores. They just don’t want to double-team him because that opens up avenues for the Spurs’ wealth of 3-pointer shooters. And Duncan is such a great passer, he can pick the Warriors apart.

So the Warriors are allowing Bogut — and rookie center Festus Ezeli — to take their medicine against San Antonio’s low-post specialist. He’s averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds the first two games. He’s shooting 42.9 percent (15 of 35).

Bogut is all but giving Duncan the midrange jumper. He’s using his size to keep Duncan from catching the ball deep and his shot-blocking ability to challenge Duncan’s array of post moves.

“If Tim gets off, like he did a little bit tonight, we’ll live with that,” Bogut said. “If he’s getting easy shots against me where he’s two feet from the basket, we have a problem. But if I keep working him, pushing him out, making him work for his buckets, we’re not too worried about it.”

Bogut is rugged and rough on the edges, which is exactly what the Warriors need at this point. They have enough pretty boys on the team. His post defense is the reason why the Warriors are able to survive without All-Star David Lee. He may not get the same attention as Curry and Thompson, but his presence in the middle is the difference between going home in the first round or playing for a spot in the conference finals.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Klay Thompson and Steph Curry combined for 383 3-point shots during the 2012-13 season. (GETTY IMAGES)

Moments after his Golden State Warriors ripped the Pepsi Center nets for 14 3-point shots and 131 points to stun the Denver Nuggets by a whopping 14 points Tuesday night, Mark Jackson boasted that his team may have the best shooting backcourt in NBA history.

”We are a very good shooting basketball team,” the Warriors coach told reporters after Golden State evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1. ”We’ve got guys that can knock down shots. You talk about Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, in my opinion, they’re the greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game.”

Wow! That is something coming from a guy who played with Hall-of-Famer and 3-point specialist Reggie Miller for six seasons in Indiana. As much as we’d like to disagree with Jackson, he makes a valid point.

Thompson, the son of former Blazer and Laker great Mychal Thompson, has knocked down 322 3-point shots in his first two seasons. He made 211 treys this year, which could easily have led the league except he had a teammate who had 272 threes. Curry broke Ray Allen’s single-season NBA record for most 3-point shots made, and hit a mind-boggling 45% of his shots from beyond the arc.

Curry may have the best shooting stroke in basketball, period. His jump shot is pure perfection. Once he gets his feet set, the shot is almost automatic. His technique is so good it’s almost a surprise when he misses.

The son of Dell Curry is putting on a shooting so far in the 2013 NBA playoffs, lighting up Denver for 30 points in Game 2, including 4-for-10 from 3-point range. As a team the Warriors were 14-for-25 on 3-balls and shot a sizzling 61% from the field Tuesday night. Golden State silenced the raucous Pepsi Center crowd despite not having All-Star forward David Lee, who is out for the year with a bad hip.

“It’s a big win for us. Everybody contributed, and that’s how we have to play without D. Lee,” said Curry, who also dished out 13 assists.

Give Jackson a lot of credit for the win because he didn’t panic when Lee went down, and his decision to insert point guard Jarrett Jack into the starting lineup may have turned this series around. The three-guard look paid off, as the Warriors played faster and gave the Nuggets fits.

“They were knocking down shots from everywhere,” Nuggets forward Andre Iguodala said. “They kept attacking us, especially our pick-and-roll defense. In the fourth quarter, Steph was making shots for them.”

Jackson moved rookie forward Harrison Barnes to the power forward spot, Lee’s usual spot, and the adjustment not only put another outside shooter on the court but it also negated Wilson Chandler’s advantage at the stretch 4 position.

“It was a different lineup. We started (Jarrett) Jack, so we were small. With Harrison (Barnes) at the four, we match up better,” Curry said. “We were able to space the floor. Every play we ran we had good looks because the ball was moving. It forced them to react to us instead of the other way around.”

Barnes finished with 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting, Jack scored 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting in 42 minutes, and Klay Thompson added 21 points and knocked down five of his six 3-point shots.

“If we try to outshoot this team, it’s crazy. They may be the best shooting team in the NBA, and the best I’ve seen in a long time,” Nuggets coach George Karl said of the Warriors.

Stephen Curry’s 54 points electrified the Madison Square Garden crowd. (GETTY IMAGES)

Without All-Star forward David Lee, Stephen Curry had to crank it up a notch when his Golden State Warriors visited Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. And did Curry crank it up.

By the time the second half rolled in the basketball-savvy New York fans were cheering for Curry each time the ball left his hand.

Curry was 18 of 28 from the field, finishing one shy of the NBA record with 11 3-pointers in 13 attempts, in a performance that had the Garden crowd going bananas. He finished with a career-high 54 points, and two more than the season’s previous high of 52 points set by Kevin Durant against the Dallas Mavericks. It didn’t matter that Curry’s Warriors lost 109-105. It was one of those magical performances that will be relived in Garden lore.

”He put on a clinic. Knocked down shots. Made plays. Carried us,” Golden State coach Mark Jackson, a New York native, told the Associated Press. ”He did it all. I’ve seen a lot of great performances in this building and his goes up there. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot, but that shooting performance was a thing of beauty.”

There have been many electrifying performances at the Garden. There was Bernard King’s 60-point outburst on Christmas Day, Michael Jordan’s double-nickel game in 1995, LeBron James’ 52-point night in 2009, and Kobe Bryant’s record-setting 61-point game in 2009. For Jackson — who is a native New Yorker and former Knick player — to say Curry’s shooting exhibition ranks up there holds a lot of weight.

Playing all 48 minutes, Curry finished with seven assists and six rebounds while passing his previous career best of 42 points. Snubbed during the All-Star selection, Curry now has plenty of ammunition to prove to the rest of the league that he’s a rising star and should have been playing in the main event instead of being a participant on All-Star Saturday night.

The Knicks, who hadn’t played since Sunday, looked ready to blow the Warriors out early, taking a 25-11 lead that the Warriors trimmed to 27-18 at the end of the first period before surging ahead behind Curry.

Curry scored 12 straight Golden State points, cutting it to 35-34 with his third 3-pointer of the second quarter. He followed Richard Jefferson’s 3 with another one, giving the Warriors a 40-37 advantage. The Knicks recovered and went back ahead by nine late in the period before Curry answered with six consecutive points, and New York’s lead was 58-55 at the break.

”He’s a special young player with a very unique talent,” Chandler said. ”We ran everything at him. He just got hot. There was some shots that he couldn’t have seen the rim.”

Houston Rockets guard Jeremy Lin celebrates one of his five 3-pointers during a 140-109 win over the Golden State Warriors. (GETTY IMAGES)

The Houston fans knew the Rockets were on the verge of history against Golden State on Tuesday night, needing one more 3-pointer to set an NBA record. They chanted “One more three! One more three!” during the final moments.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson, however, wasn’t going to let that happen.

Houston tied the record with 3:39 left in the fourth when Donatas Motiejunas buried a triple from the corner, much to the delight of the Rockets bench that had starters James Harden and Jeremy Lin cheering on the reserves to break the record.

So, Jackson ordered his Warriors to stop the three parade by intentionally fouling any Houston player who got the ball. The Rockets settled for tying an NBA record and set a franchise mark with 23 3-pointers in a 140-109 win over the Warriors. Houston matched the single-game record for 3s set by Orlando in a win over Sacramento on Jan. 13, 2009.

The Warriors got a ton of heat from Rockets fans for raining on their 3-ball fun, but Jackson was unapologetic afterwards.

“We’re not gonna lay down. I’m an old-school basketball player, I’m an old-school coach,” Jackson told the media. “You can’t appreciate that that’s on you. You gonna try to get the record we’re gonna stop you. There’s a way to do it that’s all. And I expect nothing less if I was on the other side.”

Kevin McHale, another old-school player with an old-school mentality, appeared to engage in a very heated conversation with Jackson at midcourt after the Warriors’ Draymond Green committed a hard foul on Patrick Beverley as he tried to shoot a three. Green and Morris were ejected. But McHale quickly defused any animosity toward Jackson during his postgame press conference, telling reporters he had no issue with Jackson’s end-game strategy.

“I didn’t even know we had a chance to break the record until late in the game,” McHale said. “We shoot a lot of threes, that’s what we do. Mark didn’t want it to happen so they fouled. I have no problem with that. Mark has to coach his team.”

Here’s a question to the Golden State Warriors: Why did they allow 23 3-pointers in the first place? They could have stopped this madness much sooner by challenger Lin (5-for-8 on threes), Harden (4-for5), Chandler Parsons (4-for-8), and Marcus Morris (3-for-6) and run them off the 3-point line. Instead, Jackson and the Warriors waited until the final four minutes of the game to do something about it.

Looks like the Warriors’ defense needs some work to do.