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Rising Stars Challenge: Greg Monroe Stars, Trolls For Team Shaq In Loss

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Much like with the Pistons, Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight were losers with Team Shaq on Friday night in the Rising Stars Challenge, falling to Team Chuck in a defensive battle, 146-133.

Also like with the Pistons, Monroe made headlines for Team Shaq (his stat line was featured on SportsCenter for Team Shaq) by recording a double-double, 19 points and 10 rebounds. He also hit a three-pointer (the first we've seen him make in a Pistons uniform) and had five steals, including this one off John Wall as Wall was trying to throw himself a(nother) highlight oop at the end of the game:

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Monroe explained after the game that it was all love:

"It was just a joke," Monroe said. "He got another shot at it. The game was over so it wasn't a big deal... I thought about it right when I did it. It was real quick. I was thinking about letting him go but then ..."

Monroad Warrior doesn't know how to not go hard, that's all. And John Wall thought it was funny, too:

"It's just fun. Don't get mad at him for it. He did it so I'm going to try to dunk on him when we play them... It was funny. I was going to try something else but he took it away from me. The crowd didn't like it. You get a little upset but it's an All-Star Game. We're having fun. You just let it go."

As for Knight, he had the worst shooting game for Team Shaq (5-for-14), but he still finished with 14 points and seven assists.

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Kyrie Irving won the game's Most Valuable Player award by scoring 34 points on 12-for-13 shooting (oh, just 8-for-8 from three-pointers). My favorite non-Pistons highlight of the game was when Ricky Rubio belittled DeMarcus Cousins by dribbling through his legs on his way to lob city with Blake Griffin:

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You can find the box score full of big numbers here.