Oden, Durant Set For Las Vegas Summer League

Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are expected to play Friday when the NBA's summer league opens in Las Vegas. <br/><br/>Yi Jianlian is also scheduled to play Friday _ but not for the Milwaukee Bucks, who

Thursday, July 5th 2007, 7:38 pm

By: News On 6

Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are expected to play Friday when the NBA's summer league opens in Las Vegas.

Yi Jianlian is also scheduled to play Friday _ but not for the Milwaukee Bucks, who took him with the No. 6 pick in the draft. Yi is playing for the Chinese national team, which is playing in the third of the four games on the campus of UNLV.

The Chinese team joins 21 NBA clubs who will be represented in the league, which runs through July 15 at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion.

Eleven lottery selections, including seven of the first eight picks, are expected to participate in the 55-game schedule.

``This should be one of the best summer league teams ever,'' Blazers owner Paul Allen said. ``It's pretty amazing.''

San Antonio and Philadelphia play first Friday, followed by Dallas and Seattle, which drafted Durant with the No. 2 pick. He signed his contract Wednesday and is expected to play in Las Vegas along with Jeff Green, who was taken by Boston with the fifth pick and sent to Seattle in the trade for Ray Allen.

Oden, the overall No. 1 pick, is expected to play for Portland, which opposes Boston in the nightcap. Oden and Durant could face each other for the first time as professionals when the SuperSonics and Trail Blazers meet on the league's final day.

China, which plays Memphis on Friday, played two exhibition games in Dallas earlier this week, with Yi struggling in his return to the national team. He still hasn't met with the Bucks, who drafted him even though they weren't invited to his workout because Yi preferred to play in a bigger market with a large Asian population.