NBA All-Star Friday night: Canadians not named Bieber win big

Bogdan Bogdanovic was named MVP as Team World beat Team USA 155-124 at the NBA Rising Stars Game.

If Saturday night is the main course, then Friday provided a tasty appetizer.

The NBA all-star festivities in Los Angeles kicked off with the celebrity all-star game, where Andre De Grasse’s Team Clippers defeated Justin Bieber’s Team Lakers, before the future of the league took centre stage when Team USA played Team World in the Rising Stars Challenge.

Team World beat Team USA 155-124 in a game that was a contest for about three-and-a-half minutes, but there was no shortage of entertainment.

Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz will be participating in the dunk contest, but that didn’t stop him from giving the fans a little taste of what’s to come. He set the Staples Centre alight early on with a monster dunk after throwing the ball off the glass to himself, a la Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady in previous years.

Not to be outdone, Dennis Smith Jr. who is also participating in the dunk contest, showed the crowd what he can do with a nice alley-oop finish off a feed from Mitchell.

While Team USA did everything to make the highlight reel with their fancy dunks, Team World played the numbers game and outplayed them from beyond the arc. Bogdan Bogdanovic, a 25-year-old rookie from Serbia knocked down four first-half triples, including this absurd pull-up jumper from Steph Curry range.

The Kings rookie went on to win MVP honours for a team-high 26 points to go along with seven three-pointers, six assists and four rebounds. Canadian Jamal Murray joined in on some of the three-point action as well, making three of his own from deep and collecting 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds. He was the MVP of this game a year ago, scoring 36 points and dishing out 11 dimes.

Mississauga, Ont., native Dillon Brooks made a good first impression at his first all-star event, finishing with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists, and one very solid tomahawk dunk in 16 minutes.

Team World finished with 23 three-pointers to the Americans’ 11, and the 36-point deficit was ultimately the difference in the game. Jaylen Brown led all scorers with 35 points and added 10 rebounds, before wrapping things up with a ridiculous through-the-legs dunk with his left hand.

While the battle of rookies and sophomores wasn’t much of one, the celebrity game was a much more even contest. Granted, it had more to do with the fact that both teams were just as poor as each other, with plenty of airballs, missed layups and mind-numbing turnovers throughout. Canadian Andre De Grasse did his best to represent, finishing with 17 points and six rebounds.

Despite his performance, it was Quavo of Migos who was awarded the MVP award for this game for finishing with a game-high 19 points. He deserves credit, though, as he brought a pretty sweet lefty game to the table and even attempted a couple of James Harden euro steps.

YouTube sensation Rachel DeMita brought her ‘A’ game as well, knocking down a couple of three-pointers and finishing inside with ease to rack up 17 points for herself. Justin Bieber tried to bring the handles as the point guard for Team Lakers, but struggled to bring much else.

The festivities for Saturday night go down starting at 8:00 p.m. ET and you can catch the action on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet Now.

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