While his team did not end up winning the NBA All-Star Weekend Rising Stars Challenge tournament, Quentin Grimes got the weekend off to a good start for himself and the Knicks.
Grimes, who was one of the starters for Team Joakim Noah, had a team-high 13 points in his squad’s semifinal win over Team Jason Terry, including a rim-rocking alley-oop and then the game-winning three-pointer, which gave Team Joakim the target score of 40 to win:
Come the finals against Team Pau Gasol, Grimes had 14 of his squad’s 20 points in a 25-20 loss, going 4-for-5 from three-point range and then converting a baseline layup to give Team Joakim an 18-16 lead.
Team Pau finished on a 9-2 run, however, with eventual MVP Jose Alvarado hitting a triple to give his squad a 25-20 victory.
Still, Grimes had 27 of Team Joakim’s 60 total points in just under 17 minutes of game action, and added three steals, one assist, one rebound, and two blocks while shooting 10-for-14 overall.
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"It was great," Grimes said about the night. "It was everything I could have imagined watching it as a kid growing up, all the stars coming into this game and going on in their great careers. So, I couldn't ask for a better night for me really."
And now, after going 6-for-10 from three in the event, he’ll get to watch teammate Julius Randle compete in the Three-Point Contest Saturday night – an event he hopes to be in someday.
"I feel like the three-point competition would be down the road for me moving forward,” Grimes said. “I mean, it's something that I pride myself on, is shooting the ball really at a high level.”
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