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He Detroit Pistons They came up empty-handed in their brief cameo at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, but perhaps a rivalry is brewing.
Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey, the two representatives of the team at the 2024 Rising Stars Game, they were eliminated in the semifinals of the four-team tournament. Her team, Team Tamika, lost 40-35 to Team Jalen, coached by Detroit native Jalen Rose, to open the event. Ivey finished with eight points (4-of-7 shooting), four steals and three rebounds. Duren scored two points on 1-of-4 shooting.
But that wasn’t the most important story.
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The theater of the moment was Indiana Pacers sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin, who bad-mouthed Ivey and told him, “Even in the Rising Stars game, you can’t defend me,” and repeated it two more times as Ivey’s face He went from smiling to serious.
Ivey and Mathurin were selected consecutively in No. 5 and 6 in the 2022 draft, by the Pistons and Pacers respectively. In the end, Mathurin had the last laugh in front of his home crowd in Indianapolis, winning that game and the final to win the Most Valuable Player award.
Mathurin, who spent two seasons at Arizona, spoke about his relationship with Ivey (Purdue) after the game.
“He is a great player. I love playing against him. My challenge is always to do my best against him. He was selected before me… There is no hate. He is a great guy, he is a great player and he will have a great career “But every time I play against him, I have that in me.”
Mark your calendar now: Pistons visit Central Division rival Pacers on Thursday to kick off the last third of the season. Indiana returns the favor on March 20. The Pacers won the first two games of the season by 23 in Indiana and eight points in Detroit, with Mathurin scoring 30 points off the bench in the second game.
Team Tamika got off to a 9-0 start, starting with a Duren dunk in transition and aided by an Ivey layup in transition. However, Team Jalen battled back thanks to Mathurin, who led all scorers with 18 points. Team Tamika, coached by former WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings, who played with Ivey’s mother Niele in the WNBA, fell behind and couldn’t fight back. Ivey added some more intense shots to the rim, prompting a speed comparison to Allen Iverson from analyst Jamal Crawford, and Duren missed some jumpers, testing his range. Ivey was part of the winning team last year, scoring seven points in two games.
Team Jalen won the event over Team Detlef (which was comprised of G-League players including former Ypsilanti Lincoln and Eastern Michigan standout Emoni Bates), 26-13, in the finals. Bates finished with seven points in two games.
Ivey and Duren were two of 10 second-year players selected for the Rising Stars event, which is organized annually to highlight young NBA talent. The event consisted of 21 NBA players (11 rookies and 10 second-year stars) selected into three teams of seven, while the fourth team consisted of seven NBA G-League players.
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The event consisted of a mini-tournament between four teams of seven with two semi-final games played to a final score of 40 and the final game played to a score of 25. It was the third consecutive year that the game used the Elam format.
Detroit’s two rookies, Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser, were not selected to participate.
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