The NBA ALL Star weekend in Los Angeles started with two matches on Friday night - the Celebrity All Star game and then the main attraction, the Rising Stars Challenge. And of course, both were the entertainers that the packed house at LACC expected them to be.
In the Rising Stars match that featured NBA players in their first or second year in the league, stars like Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid took the court for the ‘World’ team but it was Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic who stunned all with their high-scoring prowess.
The two Sacramento Kings players together scored 12 of team World's 23 3-pointers with Bogdan Bogdanovic winning the MVP award with 26 points and seven 3-pointers as their team beat team USA 155-124.
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This was the fourth straight time team World won the All Star Rising Stars challenge.
You know, it was (an) All-Star Game, so it wasn’t like a really competitive game. But the World has been getting better. I’m proud to see a lot of guys around the world from France, Australia, you have (Joel) Embiid from Cameroon. Everybody is showing progress, and the world is showing progress catching up to American basketball. This shows how hard we’ve been working and how dedicated we are to this game.Buddy Hield
The 10-man American team in fact struggled to keep up with the 10-man team representing everywhere else, from Canada to Croatia to Cameroon. Eight of the World's 10 players hit double figures, including 21 from Denver's Jamal Murray, the Canadian MVP of this game last season with 36 points.
Boston's Jaylen Brown led the U.S. with 35 points and 10 rebounds. Kyle Kuzma, the hometown Lakers' promising rookie, added 20.
Philadelphia's Ben Simmons also was sharp in his rookie debut in the game, with the Aussie No. 1 pick contributing 11 points, 13 assists, six rebounds and four steals while catalyzing the World's offense. His 76ers teammate, Croatia's Dario Saric, also hit four 3-pointers.
Hield, who is from the Bahamas, will be sorry to see the end of his eligibility for this game, in which he scored 28 points last season in New Orleans as a rookie with the Pelicans. The sweet-shooting Kings guard hit five 3-pointers.
Bogdanovic, from Serbia, was even better from long range, going 7 for 13 on 3-pointers and even adding six assists to earn MVP honors.
"I approach every single game the same way," Bogdanovic said. "Try to compete to be the best version of myself that day, and it just happened tonight. You never know when it's going to happen."
Both Kings guards excelled against their Sacramento teammate, De'Aaron Fox, who scored four points for the U.S.
"I told him I would score on him," Bogdanovic said. "I should (have) bet as well, but we didn't bet, so I didn't get some extra money."
The biggest cheers at Staples Center went to Lakers youngsters Kuzma and Brandon Ingram on the U.S. team. The fans also roared for Lonzo Ball, who was selected for the U.S. roster but unable to play due to his lingering knee injury.
Ingram, who scored eight points, and Kuzma were both playing in their third game in three nights, including a loss at Minnesota on Thursday night. But they are the struggling marquee franchise's only representatives at the latest All-Star weekend in its hometown.
The 16-time NBA champion Lakers (23-34), who also had Larry Nance Jr. in the dunk contest before trading him to Cleveland, are likely to miss the playoffs for a team-record fifth consecutive season.
"It was a good pickup game," Ingram said. "Guys got to go out there and hit a few shots and have fun. Got a couple dunks at the end. It was just good for the fans."
Embiid provided the third quarter's best highlight with a nimble spin move into a ferocious dunk while the World padded its lead out to 32 points in the third and 39 in the fourth. Embiid only played nine minutes, but also hit a 3-pointer.
The final seconds devolved into an uncontested dunk contest, and the Americans finally had a few highlights. Brown and Atlanta's John Collins both threw down ferocious , acrobatic slams .
Utah's Donovan Mitchell and Dallas' Dennis Smith Jr. also warmed up for their participation in Saturday's dunk contest with a couple of nasty slams in the first half.
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