The Rookies won 148-140, the second straight year that the first-year players have pulled the upset.

Washington guard John Wall scored 12 points with a Rookie Challenge record 22 assists. Wall’s former teammate at Kentucky, DeMarcus Cousins, scored a game-high 33 points with 14 rebounds. Clippers rookie Blake Griffin, who is from Oklahoma City and played in college at Oklahoma, finished with 14 points in just 13 minutes.

To the accompaniment of supersonic screams from thousands of children crammed into Staples Center's lower bowl, both teams went through the usual array of alley-oops, breakaway jams and matador defense before the rookies pulled away in the final minutes. No. 1 draft pick Wall scored 12 points while surpassing Chris Paul's 2007 Rookie Challenge record of 17 assists, repeatedly setting up his fellow rookies for acrobatic dunks and wide-open jumpers.

The erstwhile Wildcats switched roles for the rookies' final basket with 12.8 seconds left, with Cousins lofting a pass off the backboard for an electric two-handed dunk by Wall, who hung on the rim for emphasis.

“Coach told us to run a couple of plays, but we knew our team was going to push the ball, and I know (Cousins) can finish,” Wall said.

Griffin bounced back from an elbow to the nose to score 14 points for the rookies, but the Clippers' high-flying dunk machine watched his team's late surge from the bench despite thousands of children chanting, “We want Blake!”

San Antonio's DeJuan Blair had 28 points and 15 rebounds.

In the final minutes of a tight game, the kids began chanting insistently for Griffin — with rookies coach Kevin McHale egging them on. With a towel draped on his head, Griffin responded with a sheepish grin, but sat out the final 12:25.

Griffin already is booked for the busiest All-Star weekend in recent memory in his home arena. He's the strong favorite in Saturday's slam dunk contest, and he'll play in Sunday's main event as the first rookie All-Star in eight years.

The Rookie of the Year front-runner was hit in the nose by an accidental elbow from New York's Landry Fields while playing defense in the opening minutes, but Griffin kept playing. He left the game wincing a few possessions later, but didn't appear limited when he returned later.

Evans, last season's MVP with 26 points for the rookies, sat out of the sophomores' lineup with an injured left foot. Harden replaced him.

News of Wilson Holloway’s death on Wednesday shocked and stunned many close friends.
One of those was former high school basketball teammate Blake Griffin, who was visibly affected after hearing the news following the Los Angeles Clippers’ win at Minnesota on Wednesday night.

ESPN.com reported that Griffin “had his head in his hands in the locker room after receiving a phone call that a friend from home had died.”

Griffin and Holloway were high school teammates at Oklahoma Christian School and won state championships in 2006 and 2007. They remained close after Griffin went to the NBA and Holloway was an offensive lineman at the University of Tulsa.

Holloway’s funeral will be at 1 p.m. Monday at the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmond. Arrangements are being handled by Temple and Sons Funeral Home.

Holloway died on Wednesday from complications of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

His loss was felt by his former schoolmates at OCS.

Former classmates Angela Patton and Laurie Allendorfer have helped plan a memorial candlelight service honoring Holloway. The service will be held on the OCS campus at 6 p.m. Friday.

“We’re expected between 200 and 400 people,” said Patton, a University of Central Oklahoma student who was a 2007 graduate at OCS with Holloway.

Patton said she last saw Holloway at the Saints’ homecoming basketball game last week. Holloway’s cancer had taken a toll on his body, but didn’t pierce his spirit.

“He looked like he was only 150 pounds,” Patton said, “We were all worried about him, but he remained positive.

He said ‘Guys, I’ll be fine and I’ll fight through it.’ “He was always just so positive.”

If you are like me then you like to save money. If I can find coupons ways to save money I am going to jump on it. Now I found out that one of my favorite stores is offering discounts. You can get your own Bed Bath and Beyond coupon.

Although the Albert Pujols negotiations have weighed heavily on our minds for much of the past week -- and probably longer for Cardinals fans -- it was impossible to analyze them because we just didn't know what was going on behind closed doors. Well, thanks to Ken Rosenthal's reports and ESPN's Karl Ravech, it looks like we know why a deal didn't get done. Rosenthal tweets that, according to a source, the Cardinals offer would only give Pujols the 10th highest salary in the game, somewhere around $19-21 million dollars per season.

The Cardinals had to know there was no chance that Albert would sign that offer. People are asking questions like“Is Albert Pujols Worth $40 Million Per Season?” and “Is Albert Pujols Worth 300 Million?", not whether he would sign for $20 million per year. Looking at some hard numbers, Gas House Graphs, an excellent Cardinals blog, comes up with a 10-year value for Albert at $260 million with some help from saberist wonder Tom Tango.

Using Rosenthal's numbers, we get a contract offer from the Cardinals of eight years and $168 million, nine years and $189 million, or 10 years and $210 million. By the Gas House Graphs numbers, the Cardinals are underselling Pujols by some $50 million even if they actually went out to 10 years, a length which the Cardinals seemed reluctant to offer.

It's certainly understandable that the Cardinals haven't come out and offered Pujols the fabled $300 million contract or some other such big deal. Although Pujols’ on-field value is currently untouched by any other player, that doesn't mean the Cardinals should simply empty the coffers in front of Pujols. After all, this is a business.

However, it's obvious that the team is in better shape with Albert on the team. The only way that they remain contenders, at least in the short-term, is with Albert on the team. Thenewly-released PECOTA projections have Albert worth 7.7 WARP -- wins above replacement player. The next best position player? Ryan Braun, at 4.9 WARP. Pujols so outclasses the rest of his position player colleagues that he is nearly three full wins over No. 2.

The Cardinals had a huge asset in their exclusivity to negotiate with Pujols. They could have been able to reach a deal with the superstar for under his market value, and any contract with Pujols will almost certainly offer huge surpluses in the first few years of the deal. The offer that they made, however, had no chance of ever being accepted, and I find it hard to believe that Cardinals management didn't know that fact themselves.

It's not over for St. Louis, though. They'll get another chance, even if it has to wait until after the season, assuming that the deadline set by Pujols actually means anything. If they want to get anything done with their superstar on the second go-round, they'll need to actually acknowledge his value. The Cardinals found out that their reportedly discounted offers just aren't going to fly. We'll see in about eight months if the Cardinals will open up the checkbook and pay Pujols what he's worth.

Actress Winter Ave Zoli arrives at the premiere premiere of FX and FOX 21's "Sons Of Anarchy" Season 3 on Aug. 30, 2010, in Hollywood, Calif

Epoxydude | Getty Images