Cade Cunningham’s inaugural NBA All-Star Weekend continued on Saturday night at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Detroit Pistons rookie was part of “Team Rooks”, a group of first-year players that also included Josh Giddey of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors.
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Things started off slow against the two other squads, made up of three members from the host Cleveland Cavaliers (Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley) and the three Antetokounmpo brothers (Giannis, Thanasis, and Alex).
In the opening round, Team Rooks put up 32 points in the shooting competition but lost to Team Cavs. In the second round, the passing competition, Team Rooks tied Team Antetokounmpo with 88 points, but the Antetokounmpos were awarded first place on the first tiebreaker of outlet passes.
In the final event of the preliminary round, Team Rooks participated in the relay/obstacle course, finishing first with a time of 1:18. The two other teams failed to complete the course, so, by default, the Rooks won and advanced to the final.
After a tiebreaker between the Cavs and the Antetokounmpos went to the Cavs to set the field for the final: the quickest team to make a half-court shot. The three Rookies managed to pull together a deep bomb in 9.9 seconds. However, the Cavs managed to put a game-winning shot in by Evan Mobley in 5.5 seconds.
Cunningham’s first All-Star Weekend comes to a close, but after a stellar outing in the Rising Stars game, it likely won’t be his last.
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