Before Monday, Ja Morant and Trae Young never had played a basketball game against each other. Not during high school camps, not in AAU, not even in college.



In today’s increasingly connected basketball world, it’s somewhat odd that two American-born top-five draft picks, who play the same position and are only a year apart in age, had to wait until they joined the NBA ranks to face each other for the first time. But they did have a newly forming relationship going into Monday’s game.



They met for the first time during All-Star Weekend and were starters in the Rising Stars Challenge. During the weekend, they sat with Steve Nash during a TNT segment and talked about the intricacies of their position. A friendship blossomed from that meeting. They study each other’s games, and Morant began to text Young after big games.



“He’s one of the top point guards in the league,” Morant said. “We play the same...