Zach LaVine, Kristaps Porzingis highlight high-scoring Rising Stars Challenge

The Vaughan, Ont., native poured in 29 points on an array of dunks and jump shots in Friday night’s NBA All-Star Rising Stars Challenge – which also served as a welcome home party for the young Canadian star.

The Knicks rookie finished with 30 points, which tied a game-high, on 12-of-16 shooting.

Timberwolves teammates Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, 20 years old each, will be playing against one another. Towns has proven himself as arguably the best rookie in the league this year, averaging a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds per night.

That led Hart to turn over the US coaching duties to All-Star player Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons in the third quarter, change into a uniform and insert himself into the game in an ultimately futile attempt to lead a comeback.

Both Lakers guards will lace up their shoes for the U.S. Team on Friday night and, quite frankly, there’s plenty of reason for Lakers fans to be excited about what they could see from the duo.

The teams scored at will as the game opened with a free-wheeling pace.

The players put on an offensive showcase, throwing down huge dunks and hoisting up three-point shots. Wiggins led World to the victory last season, where he would score 22 points off of 8 for 11 shooting.

The U.S. team shot 63.2 percent from the floor in the first half and the World hit 65.5 percent of its shots.

Team USA held a nine-point lead after the first of two 20 minute halves, but Team World managed to make it a tight finish by out-scoring their opponents by six points in the second half. In the first half, he had finished a break and an alley-oop on a pass from Utah’s Raul Neto and had a tip dunk.

Another 3-pointer by Porzingis had the World within five points with 10 minutes to play in the second half.

Wiggins hit two free throws with 49 seconds left to trim the lead to three points. However, due to a knee injury, Noel has been replaced with Phoenix Suns SG Devin Booker. They were G/F Andrew Wiggins of the World team and US team members C Karl-Anthony Towns and G Zach LaVine.