LOS ANGELES (AP) – Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic got the All-Star weekend off to a running start in the World’s latest victory over the NBA’s young Americans.
Hield scored 29 points with five 3-pointers, and his Sacramento Kings teammate won the MVP award with 26 points and seven 3-pointers in the World team’s 155-124 victory over the US team in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night.
The annual showcase of the NBA’s top rookies and second-year players again served as the opening to the three-day All-Star festivities, which are being held in Los Angeles for the record sixth time.
But this show was headlined by two shooting stars from the upstate rivals of the hometown Lakers and Clippers, with Hield and Bogdanovic combining to hit 12 of the World’s 23 3-pointers. The World has won this All-Star showcase four consecutive times.
“You know, it was (an) All-Star Game, so it wasn’t like a really competitive game,” Hield said. “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.”
Indeed, the 10-man American team 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.
