Wiggins, Towns, LaVine chosen for All-Star Rising Stars Challenge

No surprise here, but ... Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine all will play in next month's Rising Stars Challenge at All Star weekend in Toronto.

Towns and LaVine will play with Philadelphia's Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, the Lakers' D'Angelo Russell< Boston's Marcus Smart and others on the U.S. team while Wiggins will play with New York's Kristaps Porzingis, Chicago's Nikola Mirotic and others for the World team.

They changed the format last year, from a Rookies vs. Sophomores configuration to U.S. vs. the World featuring first- and second-year players.

That new format means Dwight Powell, Mario Hezonja and Emmanuel Mudiay will play for the World team while Sacramento's Willie Cauley-Stein, Detroit's Stanley Johnson and Miami's Justise Winslow got left off the U.S. team.

LaVine, Wiggins, Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad played in the game last year.

This year's game will be played Friday, Feb. 12 at Air Canada Centre.

Now, on to tonight's game....

The Thunder won the first two. Now they arrive after last night's overtime victory over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Does that give the Wolves perhaps even the slightest of an edge?

"Well, you never know, " Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio said. "You never know in this league if it's easier to play after a day or when you're back-to-back and tired but your legs are ready and moving. You play in every single situation in this league. You have to take advantage when teams play the night before to push early in the game, to see how tired they are."