The Detroit Pistons came away empty-handed in their brief cameo at the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, but perhaps a rivalry is brewing.
Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey, the team’s two representatives in the 2024 Rising Stars Game, were bounced in the semifinals of the four-team tournament. Their squad, Team Tamika, lost, 40-35, to Team Jalen, coached by Detroit native Jalen Rose, to open the event. Ivey finished with eight points (4-for-7 shooting), four steals and three rebounds. Duren had two points on 1-for-4 shooting.
But that was not the biggest story.
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The trending theater was fellow second-year guard Bennedict Mathurin of the Indiana Pacers having some trash talk for Ivey, telling him, “Even in the Rising Stars game, you can’t guard me,” and repeated it two more times as Ivey’s face turned from smile to serious.
Ivey and Mathurin were drafted back-to-back at No. 5 and 6 in the 2022 draft, by the Pistons and Pacers respectively. In the end, Mathurin got the last laugh in front of his home crowd in Indianapolis, winning that game, and the final, to earn MVP.
Mathurin, who spent two seasons at Arizona, spoke on his relationship with Ivey (Purdue) postgame.
“He’s a great player. I love playing against him. My challenge is to always bring my best against him. He was drafted ahead of me. … There’s no hate. He’s a great guy, he’s a great player and he’s gonna have a great career. But every time I’m playing against him, I have that in me.”
Mark the calendar now: Pistons visit their Central Division rival Pacers on Thursday to begin the season’s final third. Indiana returns the favor March 20. The Pacers won the season’s first two meetings by 23 in Indiana, and eight points in Detroit, with Mathurin pouring in 30 points off the bench in the second game.
Team Tamika jumped out to a 9-0 start, beginning with a Duren dunk in transition and aided by an Ivey layup in transition. However, Team Jalen battled back on the back of Mathurin, who led all scorers with 18 points. Team Tamika, coached by former WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings — who played with Ivey’s mother, Niele, in the WNBA — fell behind and couldn’t battle back. Ivey added a few more blazing drives to the rim, which prompted a speed comparison to Allen Iverson from analyst Jamal Crawford, and Duren missed a few jump shots, testing his range. Ivey was a part of the winning team last year, scoring seven points over two games.
Team Jalen won the event over Team Detlef (which was comprised of G-League players, including former Ypsilanti Lincoln and Eastern Michigan standout Emoni Bates), 26-13, in the final. Bates finished with seven points over two games.
Ivey and Duren were two of the 10 second-year players selected for the Rising Stars event, hosted annually to highlight young talent in the NBA. The event was made up of 21 NBA players — 11 rookies and 10 second-year stars — drafted into three teams of seven, while the fourth team consisted of seven players from the NBA G-League.
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The event consisted of a mini-tournament between four teams of seven with two semifinal games played to a final score of 40 and the final game played to a score of 25. It was the third straight year the game used the Elam format.
Detroit’s two rookies, Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser, were not selected to participate.
First appeared on www.freep.com