After 34 players participated in their mini-camp this week, USA Basketball held a showcase exhibition game last night at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas.
Many of the biggest names at the USA camp— LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Carmelo Anthony— didn’t suit up for the glorified all-star game (chalk it up to memories of Paul George’s gruesome broken leg suffered at the event last year), but that didn’t stop the game from churning out enough dunks and highlights to satisfy any fan.
Ultimately the White squad, led by the Big Three of Blake Griffin, Kawhi Leonard, and DeMarcus Cousins, prevailed over the Blue squad 134-128. Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan, wearing number 26 in honour of former teammate Hedo Turkoglu (ok, probably not) was the lone player all-star on the Blue squad (which also featured last-minute call-up Amir Johnson), and was in fine form all evening, dropping 15 points, six assists (incl. 13 pts & four dimes in the first half), three boards and hitting three shots from beyond the arc. DeRozan looked supremely confident in executing a series of step-back jumpers, but, as was the case at the recent Drew League championship game in L.A. , it was his jaw-dropping athleticism that stood out last night, like this impressive 360 dunk:
Check out DeRozan’s full highlights from the USA Basketball Showcase here:
