Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook re-live old times in the NBA All-Star Rookie-Sophomore game

Former UCLA Bruins Kevin Love 08 (now a Minnesota Timberwolf) and Russell Westbrook 07-08 (now with the Oklahoma City Thunder) led the Sophomore team against the Rookie team in the NBA's rookie-sophomore game during the official opening night of All-Star weekend in Dallas last night.

Westbrook led all scorers with 40 pts and was gunning for OKC Thunder teammate Kevin Durant's record of 46 pts. Westbrook complemented his point output with 5 rbds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Love scored 12 pts, pulled down 6 rbds and 2 assists to help the sophies' cause.

A LOVE-ly sight: following a made free throw, Love tosses a length-of-the-court pass (although his lead foot seemed to still be in bounds (or maybe not). But seriously, who makes those kind of calls in an all-star game anyway?) to Westbrook for the bucket. Properly recognized as a "UCLA Connection." Just like old times.

But the night belonged to former Memphis-now Sacramento King Tyreke Evans (26 pts, 6 rbds, 5 assists, 5 steals) and former Pittsburgh-now San Antonio Spur DeJuan Blair (22 pts, 23 rbds), who led the rookies to a 140-128 win.
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Evans, Jennings show it is a two-man race for Rookie of the Year
By Frank Hughes
INSIDE THE NBA
SI.com
Posted: Saturday February 13, 2010 12:25AM; Updated: Saturday February 13, 2010 9:53AM

Tyreke Evans and DeJuan Blair put up big numbers for the Rookies in their win over the Sophomores.

DALLAS -- Rookie of the year clarity was not forthcoming in the NBA's rookie-sophomore game during the official opening night of All-Star weekend.

Well, it was in the sense that Sacramento's Tyreke Evans and Milwaukee's Brandon Jennings, who led the rookies to their first victory in eight years, a 140-128 decision at American Airlines Center, are the only true candidates. But which player between those two will pull away in the final stages of the season remains to be seen.

Certainly all their skills were on display in the annual affair, which is designed to not only showcase younger players but provide incentive for those players to return to All-Star weekend as a primary participant by giving them a flavor of the event.

Evans used his unique combination of size and power to lead the rookies with 26 points, six assists and five rebounds, winning the MVP award, while Jennings, wearing a hair-do that made him look a bit like Gumby, put forth his scoring flair and his all-around game by totaling 22 points, eight assists, six rebounds and four steals.

San Antonio's DeJuan Blair acquitted himself nicely, using his big body to go for 23 rebounds and 22 points in 30 minutes, contributing enough that Evans felt compelled to make an unofficial offer of sharing the MVP award.

But when it comes to the overall season, the race for the honor comes down to Evans and Jennings. Evans went mostly inside on Friday, at one point putting in a swooping baseline reverse that sent him to the line after he was knocked sideways on the move. Jennings did most of his damage from outside, his nifty step-backs and alluring quickness enough to give him the space to create.

Their combination was enough to offset the 40 points scored by Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, whose regular-season teammate, All-Star Kevin Durant, was the assistant coach for the rookie squad. In fact, it was Durant's year-old record of 46 points that Westbrook came close to breaking, lobbying sophomore coach Patrick Ewing to re-insert him into the game when he removed him with seven minutes remaining.

"I didn't even know there was a record," said Ewing, who was assisted by Toronto's Chris Bosh. "I was wondering why he asked me to put him back in."

Westbrook's other Thunder teammate, point guard James Harden, scored 22 point off the bench for the rookies, while Miami's Michael Beasley had 26 points and seven rebounds for the sophomores.

But it was Evans and Jennings who impressed -- and the players many predict will be the first ones back for the main game. In fact, some feel that Evans should have been an All-Star this year, including Shaquille O'Neal, who called him one of the best players in the game.

Jennings grabbed the early-season headlines because of his 55-point outburst against Golden State. Since, though, he has been the focal point of most opponents' defense, bringing his nightly production down. He is averaging 16.9 points and 6.2 assists. When that happened, Evans then seemingly took control of most people's decisions, particularly because he led the Kings to unexpected success even while they were missing leading scorer Kevin Martin.

But it is a two-man race once again. Martin's return prompted struggles by Sacramento, including losses in 14 of 15 games to drop their record to 18-34, fourth worst in the Western Conference. Evans is averaging 20.3 points, 5.1 assists and 4.8 rebounds.

"When Kevin Martin came back he was rusty and I hadn't had a chance to play with him like that," Evans said. "When he came back I was just trying to figure out where he liked the ball and things like that. I think we have begun to play better with each other now and have a better feel for each other."

Jennings, meanwhile, has helped the Bucks stay in the race for a playoff spot. Milwaukee is 24-27, a half game behind the Chicago Bulls for the eighth and final playoff spot.

"Tyreke Evans probably has (the award) right now, and that is fine," Jennings said. "He is putting up big numbers for his team. I am just focusing on getting my team to the playoffs, which is a big accomplishment for a rookie. (If we make the playoffs), I think I should be considered. Even though we are in the Eastern Conference, it is still the NBA and you still have to go out there and compete every day."
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The buildup...

At Rookie Challenge, teammates are foes for a few hours
By Steve Aschburner
nba.com
Posted Feb 12 2010 11:24AM

Kevin Love is about as glib and quick-witted as you'll find among the NBA's bright up-and-coming players. Jonny Flynn is a natural extrovert and a lover of fun. As teammates in Minnesota, that helps them bond. As rivals for a night at All-Star Weekend ... well, things can get snide, cold and downright nasty.

Flynn is a rookie point guard from Syracuse. Love is a second-year power forward from UCLA. Their bi-coastal connection in the Upper Midwest has been a solid one so far this season, Love finding Flynn with an outlet pass like Drew Brees hitting Marques Colston in stride or Flynn penetrating and dishing to his rolling big man.

But in the Rookie Challenge game Friday night at American Airlines Center, they will be on opposite sides, each trying to outdo the other while helping a team of rivals win. In the actual All-Star Game, East is East, West stays West and teammates stick together. But in the game pitting rookies against second-year guys, the slice is made horizontally, by chronology, rather than vertically. That turns buddies into foes, and there are three such instances this year: Love vs. Flynn, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook vs. James Harden and Golden State's Anthony Morrow vs. Stephen Curry.

No one is suggesting that the competition dial is going to be cranked up to 11. But it's not going to be down at 1, either.

Any beatdowns are certain to stay verbal in a dynamic that the participants have navigated well since the format change in 2000 from an all-rookie event. It's pretty common, year to year, with two such standoffs in 2009 (the Clippers' Al Thornton vs. Eric Gordon and the Thunder's Kevin Durant and Jeff Green vs. Westbrook). This time, Durant -- who scored 46 points against Westbrook and his fellow rookies a year ago in Phoenix -- will gang up with Westbrook as the West's assistant coach, the two of them determined to beat Harden.

In 2008, there also were two sets of split teammates; in 2007, four. A few friendly wagers and some brash talk are all part of the mix, most often from the (slightly) more established fellows.

Flynn, for instance, didn't match Love's trash factor in Minny. "You know what? It didn't show me much either," Love said. "It's going to be all fun and games leading up to it. But come game time, we're still going to have fun but we're going to talk a little trash and blow that freshman class, that rookie class, out."

Said Flynn: "He has to know something that we don't know -- that the general public does not know -- for him to make bold statements like that."

The homework is easy enough: The sophomores have won the past eight meetings and nine of 10 overall. This year, the more experienced team is also the bigger team, with Marc Gasol (7-foot-1), Brook Lopez (7-0), Danilo Gallinari (6-10) and Love (6-10) as tall or taller than the rookie's biggest big man, Jonas Jerebko (6-foot-10).

Said Flynn: "The sophomore team is a lot bigger than us, so we're going to have to double them a lot, no matter who's checking us. That's just going to be our game plan: Double them and be in a scramble mode."

In a way, battling against a teammate is something that happens all the time in practice. Except that this is a very glorified practice. With global TV coverage. In front of a packed house. And with eight other guys on the court who are relative strangers and, the rest of the time, opponents. So don't expect Morrow to spill any scouting secrets on Curry, or vice versa, to players who could later use that wisdom against the Warriors.

As Love said regarding Flynn's game: "I'm going to let them figure it out for themselves. I don't want to give away too much information. Jonny can do so many things on the court, I don't think the guys will stop him. They're going to have to try to contain him, maybe play off him a little bit, make him shoot his three ball because he is so fast."

What Flynn isn't, though, is an aggressive trash-talker. Or at least, he wasn't when his teammate -- Love is a mere 121 days older than him -- dropped a few of those "we're gonna crush you" boasts on him.

Of course, all Flynn had to do to get Love off his back was remind him which Wolves player did not make it to the Rookie Challenge game last year.

Instead, Flynn resisted. Just like an 82-game teammate, rather than a 40-minute foe, should.