Los Angeles (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers) - The USA and Mexico National Teams got some needed court time as part of the 2018 NBA All Star festivities in Los Angeles on Sunday. This comes just ahead of the February FIBA World Cup Qualifying games they will play this week.

Officially, it was called the G League International Challenge and finished 88-67 in favor of the Americans at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The game marked the first-ever international exhibition in NBA All-Star history.

The G League team was entirely made up of players who had traveled to training camp in Santa Cruz in northern California where the USA will play Cuba on Feb. 23 and Puerto Rico on Feb. 26. And it was coached by Jeff Van Gundy, who is guiding the USA through qualifying before handing the reins to Gregg Popovich.

Only five players from the November 26 game, a 91-55 USA win, were on the court in Los Angeles.

Without any of the NBA players available, which includes losing AmeriCup and first window qualifier stars such as CJ Williams, Reggie Hearn, Xavier Munford to call-ups and two-way contracts, only two USA players, Larry Drew II and Travis Wear, return from the November games. Semaj Christon, who played in November and was invited to camp, recently signed to play in Spain and will not be available.

The USA's Rodney Purvis holds off Mexico's Juan Toscano (Photo courtesy of USA Basketball by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)

Travis Wear, one of four Americans with 14 points on that day and the USA's leading rebounder with 10, played less in this exhibition, scoring 6 points. Larry Drew II didn't play in the qualifier due to injury and is the only player in the USA camp returning from the gold medal winning AmeriCup squad.

Juan Toscano, Edgar Garibray Padilla, and Marco Ramos Esquivel, who combined for 30 of Mexico's 55 points in November, were in the game.

Mexico started strong and took a 12-7 lead before the USA went on a 20-2 run to close the first quarter with a 13-point margin. The second period saw Mexico cut the lead to 5 before the USA finished strong to make it 50-37 at the break.

Alonso Gee shoots over Mexico's Garibray (Photo courtesy of USA Basketball by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)

“This was probably what would be expected of a group that has been together two days, a lot of mistakes. But we have good players and they have the right intentions and hopefully we’ll get better every day,” said USA head coach Jeff Van Gundy

Boding well for the Americans was shooting 53.2 percent (33-63) from the field, including 53.6 percent (15-28) from 3-point range, and outrebounding Mexico 42-29.

"If you can make 15 threes in a FIBA game, you’ve done a great job shooting the ball," said Van Gundy, who balanced that by adding, "but you also know that can ebb and flow and so you have to do some other things a little bit better in case you have one of those nights where you don’t shoot it great."

Luke Martinez led Mexico and all scorers with 22 points. Aaron Harrison and Xavier Silas led the USA with 13 apiece.

FIBA