Blake Griffin leads Rookies in dunk fest over Sophs in All-Star kickoff

Blake Griffin leads Rookies in dunk fest

Blake Griffin will participate in the dunk contest later this NBA All-Star weekend. But he showed his hometown fans Friday night a glimpse of what is to come.

Griffin made one thunderous dunk after another in limited minutes to set the tone early for the Rookies, as they beat the Sophomores 148-140 for the second consecutive year of the Rookie Challenge.

Kentucky teammates DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall filled up the stat sheet for the Rookies during the offensive-minded game. Cousins of the Sacramento Kings scored 33 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Wall dished out a record 22 assists in setting up team mates, including Blake Griffin who had a highlight reel throw down behind the back.

John Wall, who was picked as Rookie Challenge MVP, erased the previous record of 17 assists made by Chris Paul in the 2007 Rookies-Sophomores game.

It was a good homecoming to Los Angeles for the Sophomore's James Harden. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard led his team with 30 points while San Antonio's DeJuan Blair chipped in 28 points and 15 boards for the losing squad.

The score was close throughout the game, with the players content on giving the fans some nifty passes and alley-oop dunks. But the Rookies kept scoring off the Sophomores' turnovers late in the game to ice the contest.

Due to a minor nose injury, Griffin sat out the majority of the finishing half of the game despite fans chanting "We Want Blake!" There are plenty of those to come on Sunday's dunk contest from the hometown crowd as they watch their Los Angeles Clippers' star Blake Griffin.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday February 19 2011, 3:05 AM EDT. Ref: SI. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0