Basketball: It's World domination by LaVine as he awaits Slam Dunk defence

Zach LaVine holds up the MVP trophy after the win against the World Team. PHOTO: AFP

AFP - Minnesota forward Zach LaVine scored 30 points and pulled down seven rebounds to lead the United States to a 157-154 victory over the World team on Friday (Saturday, Singapore time) in the NBA's Rising Stars Challenge in Toronto.

LaVine was named Most Valuable Player of the contest featuring many of the NBA's top rookies and second-year players, which launched the festivities of All-Star weekend.

Sunday's All-Star Game will cap the action at Air Canada Centre, but before then LaVine will defend the title he won last year in Saturday's Slam Dunk contest.

He limbered up for that event - in which he'll hope to join Michael Jordan (1987-88), Jason Richardson (2002-03) and Nate Robinson (2009-10) as the only back-to-back winners - by leading the squad of US-born rising stars against a World team featuring his Timberwolves team-mate Andrew Wiggins of Canada, the Knicks' Latvian rookie Kristaps Porzingis, and the Denver Nuggets' Congolese guard Emmanuel Mudiay.

Both Porzingis and Mudiay scored 30 points in the game played in 20-minute halves.

Wiggins, last season's Rookie of the Year, added 29 points for the World - to the delight of the Canadian crowd.

It was the second straight year that the contest featured a USA v World format, rather than the old first-year v second-year showdown.

LaVine admitted that he wanted to take it to Timberwolves team-mate Wiggins in front of the Canadian's home fans.

But he was already looking ahead to his Dunk title defense.

"I'm excited for tomorrow," LaVine said. "I'm going to try to put on a show."

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