Day one of the NBA All-Star Weekend is behind us, tomorrow we have the Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest, and the Skills Challenge, the last events before the All-Star game on Sunday — Team LeBron v. Team Steph.
The weekend kicked off with the NBA Celebrity game. This year because of the typical East versus West theme being thrown out, the celebs went to Lakers versus Clippers for a little bit of inner city rivalry, and to keep things local in Los Angeles.
The Clippers walked away with the victory over the Lakers 75-66.
The Lakers noticeables were Justin Bieber, former NBA Superstars Tracy McGrady and Nate Robinson, and former Los Angeles Spark Candice Parker.
The Clippers matched up with Jamie Foxx, Common and recently retired Celtics great Paul Pierce along with rapper Quavo.
Quavo scored 19 points to help lift the Clippers to victory, securing Celebrity game MVP.
After halftime Ruffles brought out a 4-point line in hopes of bringing the game closer and keeping it interesting, but it wasn’t enough for the Lakers.
But All-Star weekend kept getting better.
World versus USA came right after the Celebrity game, and the World ran away with the W early shooting lights out from deep.
The World team outscored Team USA 155-124 in a blowout victory lead by Sacramento Kings rookie Bogdan Bogdanovic scoring 26 points on seven 3-pointers to take home Rising Star MVP honors.
Fellow Sacramento King Buddy Hield led Team World with 29 points while Ben Simmons contributed with 11 points and 13 assists. Former Rising Stars MVP Jamal Murray dropped 21 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds.
Team USA’s Kyle Kuzma scored 20 off the bench, but Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics carried the scoring load dropping 35 points, but it wasn’t enough as Team World won for the second year in a row.