Rising Stars Challenge Recap: USA Team Wins

Jahlil Okafor was on the winning team in Friday night’s Rising Stars Challenge.

The All-Star Weekend is a fun group of NBA festivities filled with stars, young and old, who are looking to entertain the fans to the best of their ability. They’re also looking to have fun, and not let anybody get hurt, so the expense of that often comes through the defense. As usual, and as expected, the Rising Stars Challenge was played seemingly as a dunk contest and 3-point shootout, with little defense to be found.

Jahlil Okafor’s presence in the game was not felt strongly early on due to plenty of backcourt members tearing things up, and Devin Booker — who was a replacement for Okafor’s teammate Nerlens Noel — scoring double-digit first half points. Okafor wasn’t getting many touches on the ball in the first half, and certainly wasn’t relied on as much as we are used to seeing from him in Philadelphia. Although it looked like D’Angelo Russell was looking for him on several cases, Okafor was never the best option.

Okafor didn’t get a great shot to show what he could do since defense, especially in the post, was nowhere to be found.

Rookie center Kristaps Porzingis of the World Team got much more attention — as it’s been all season — than Okafor because of the range on his shot. Porzingis hit several 3-pointers, which made him a go-to target from multiple locations on the floor. Okafor also hit a 3-pointer of his own in the second half.

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Okafor wasn’t a huge player in this game, but that’s all okay. This was an incredibly talented Rising Stars Challenge, perhaps one of the best games as far as total talent goes in recent memory. The fact that a Sixer — and two were actually selected — was in the game is incredible, and just goes to show that the future is bright for the team.

Okafor’s team, Team USA, won 157-154. He played nearly 20 minutes, scoring 13 points, only missing one shot, while bringing in 4 rebounds and dishing out 3 assists.

This game was a bit boring to watch, but the format was intriguing. There are no foul-outs, but team fouls were tracked. It was played in two 20-minute halves, a familiar game-type to these players who are no more than 2 years removed from college.

Zach Lavine, who won the dunk contest last season, was the MVP of Friday’s game. He will also be in the dunk contest on Saturday.

We could very well see Okafor back in this game next season, as he will still be an up-and-coming player who is hopefully scoring big buckets for the Sixers. Perhaps next year he can show his skill with some more defense testing him. Okafor does best on hard defenses.

And of course, we have to wonder, when will we see Okafor in an All-Star game? Maybe sooner than we think. It’s still great to have any Sixers at all during the All-Star week.