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

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:

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:

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