As a result of injuries, a few players were selected to the Rising Stars Challenge as replacement players. Ryan Dunn, who is having a nice rookie year as the 28th overall pick of the Phoenix Suns, was not initially selected for the Rising Stars Challenge, but was brought in as a replacement player.

In another new wrinkle to this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend, the NBA All-Stars were split into three teams for another mini tournament that will take place on Sunday. The fourth team in that four-team tournament is the winning team of the Rising Stars Challenge. Sure enough, Ryan Dunn’s team, “Team C”, won the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night, beating “Team T” 40-34 and then taking down the G League team 25-14 in the championship game to advance to Sunday’s All-Star Game.

Dunn’s numbers from the Rising Challenge don’t exactly jump off the page, as he scored a total of five points in the two games, but he dished out three assists in the first game and had two rebounds and a block in the championship game and played his normal excellent defense to help his team win. He also had this sweet three-pointer in transition.

Now, Ryan Dunn and his team, which features Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs, Dalton Knecht of the Los Angeles Lakers, Keyonte George of the Utah Jazz, Trayce Jackson-Davis of the Golden State Warriors, and Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey of the Memphis Grizzlies, will compete in the NBA All-Star tournament on Sunday night at Chase Center, the home of the Golden State Warriors, in San Francisco. They will be coached by Candace Parker and will take on Shaquille O’Neal’s team, which features LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Jaylen Brown, and Kyrie Irving.

Team Kenny (Smith) will take on Team Chuck (Barkley) in the first semifinal at 8:20pm ET on Sunday on TNT and then Team Candace (Parker) with Ryan Dunn and the other Rising Stars will take on Team Shaq (O’Neal) at approximately 9:10pm ET. Both games will be first to 40 points wins. Then the two winning teams will face each other for the NBA All-Star Championship at around 10pm ET.

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