More fun, less sweat. For one weekend, at least, life was different Saturday for two rookies more accustomed to the tense battles of the ACC and, more recently, the business world of the NBA.

Shane Battier of Duke and Brendan Haywood of North Carolina, once the hottest of rivals when the Blue Devils and Tar Heels squared off, were teammates and fellow starters as the NBA rookies defeated a team of league sophomores 103-97 at First Union Center.

The game was like all the companion events on All-Star Weekend, with a lot of glitz, showmanship and plenty of high-flying spice on the court.

Battier and Haywood fit right in but admitted later it was indeed different.

"It was like any All-Star game," Battier said. "The first half is about making the highlight reels and the matador defense."

Battier, a starting forward for the Memphis Grizzlies, played 23 minutes, hitting 7-of-11 shots and scoring 15 with two rebounds. Haywood, a backup center playing an increasingly major role with the Washington Wizards, went 26 minutes and made 5-of-6 shots, scoring 12 to go with three rebounds and two blocked shots.

"It's not a real difficult transition, doing something like this (All-Star game) after what you've been used to in college," Haywood said. "This is part of the business. It's fun, and you do want to win."

The more serious part came earlier, at Friday's practice and in the locker room Saturday, when Battier talked with Haywood about the state of the ACC, particularly involving the top-ranked Blue Devils and the struggling Tar Heels.

"He wasn't giving me a hard time about it," Haywood said. "People don't do that anymore. Shane was more inquisitive than anything else about what's happening there."

Haywood had no answer.

"It hurts to watch them," he said . "Wake Forest and N.C. State? We used to dominate them. To see the losses to those guys, particularly by such margins, it just hurts."

? Hornets forward Lee Nailon was a starter for the sophomore team in the rookie-sophomore game. He scored eight, making four of eight shots, and grabbed six rebounds, four of them on the offensive end.

Nailon's wife Marti, his mother, sister, brother and several cousins attended the game.

Richardson takes home dunk title

With a last-second reprieve, Golden State's Jason Richardson won the NBA's slam dunk title.

Richardson bounced the ball to himself, then flushed down a two-handed windmill reverse to score a 49 and beat Gerald Wallace 85-80 in the final.

Needing a 47 to beat Wallace, Richardson initially tried a different dunk, but he lost the ball bringing it between his legs. After conferring with a league official, referee Scott Wall gave Richardson another chance. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

? Sacramento Kings forward Peja Stojakovic beat Cleveland's Wesley Person in a 24-second playoff to win the three-point shootout. Stojakovic finished second to Milwaukee's Ray Allen last year.

He was 5-of-15 for nine points in the playoff. Person made just three shots for five points. -- AP

? The star of "Ed" helped win a trophy for Sacramento.

Tom Cavanagh was the celebrity member of the Kings team that won the inaugural Hoop-It-Up tournament, although he was on the bench when Hedo Turkoglu hit the three-pointer that beat Philadelphia 12-9 in sudden-death overtime. -- AP