2013 NBA All-Star Weekend: BBVA Rising Stars Challenge

The rosters:

Team Shaq

Damian Lillard (Portland)
Kyrie Irving (Cleveland)
Andrew Nicholson (Orlando)
Klay Thompson (Golden State)
Harrison Barnes (Golden State)
Chandler Parsons (Houston)
Dion Waiters (Cleveland)
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Charlotte)
Tyler Zeller (Cleveland)
Kemba Walker (Charlotte)

Team Chuck

Anthony Davis (New Orleans)
Kenneth Faried (Denver)
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio)
Bradley Beal (Washington)
Ricky Rubio (Minnesota)
Tristan Thompson (Cleveland)
Nikola Vucevic (Orlando)
Brandon Knight (Detroit)
Isaiah Thomas (Sacramento)
Alexey Shved (Minnesota)

I'm going with Team Shaq again this year; that pick didn't pan out so well last year, but he seems to have put together the better team this time around. It should hopefully be a decent game and be reasonably competitive if it remains close, but I personally still enjoy seeing the young guys showing off with some dunks and playground stuff as well. It's their time in the limelight, some of them are highly unlikely to ever make it to the All-Star Game, so by all means let them put on a show.

I will go with Chuck's team. Faried I think will play extremely hard despite the game being meaningless.

Gotta go with Team Shaq although Chuck's team will have advantage in the paint

I think Chuck's team has a bigger advantage...if they play defense (which is non-existent in this type of event). Shaq's team can score a lot of points (and high potential highlight reel).

Going with Chuck.

B! B! V! A!

Wow! Chuck's team hitting threes from everywhere. Isaiah Thomas going for that MVP.

Still a half to go, but it looks like Team Shaq is going to let me down again in my predictions. Not a lot of defense but impressive shooting by Team Chuck and some nice dunks too; didn't know Shved had that in him. Seems it's between Thomas and Faried for the MVP.

Faried keeps trying to block the dunks and play defense. The commentator got pissed off: "He just doesn't know how to turn off the motor."

Lol.

Hahahaha. Irving totally embarrassed Knight. That literraly was a 'pwnage'.

Oh. Uncle Drew doing some killer crossovers.

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Just Wow!!!

Sick ankle breaking move by Irving in the midst of a blowout, some nice little back and forth with him and Knight at the end there. It was good to see him out there playing a decent amount of minutes, considering he's also in the Three Point Shootout and All-Star Game. Nice performance by Faried to lock up the MVP and an entertaining dunking exhibition in the final couple of minutes when everything had long been decided. A competitive game would've been nice but the hot shooting by Team Chuck in the first half blew that out of the water early on. Still fun to watch with all the highlights.