EAST GRAB ALLSTAR WIN, CELTICS TAKE ATLANTIC DIVISION

 

Well this year the 2008 Allstar Game was in a New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. It was the weekend that played out with a background of both jazz and nudging those with hospitality packages into helping out those still trying to rebuild homes and lives. The appetisers were certainly tasty enough. The Sophomores beat the Rookies 136-109 in the Rookie Challenge, A "New Orleans" team led by NFL star Terrel Owens beat a "Hornets" team led by Chris Tucker 51-50 in the Celebrity Game, the Magic's Dwight Howard won the Slam Dunk contest wearing a Superman cape, the Jazz's Deron Williams won the Super Skills contest, the Raptors' Jason Kapono won the Three Point Shootout and a San Antonio team made up of Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Becky Hammon of the WNBA's Silver Stars won the Shooting Stars tournament.

As for the big game itself, well the East's starting five had Jason Kidd and Dwayne Wade as starting guards, Chris Bosch and LeBron James as starting forwards and Dwight Howard at starting center. Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Joe Johnson(Hawks), Paul Pierce and Antawn Jamison on the bench with Kevin Garnett and Caron Butler(Wizards) both picked but injured on the night. They were hoping to go run and gun.

The West replied with Allen Iversen and Kobe Bryant as starting guards. Tim Duncan and Carmelo Anthony were the starting forwards. Yao Ming started at centre. On the bench was Brandon Roy(Blazers), Chris Paul(Hornets), Dirk Nowitski, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Carlos Boozer and David West(Hornets). Technically the home side for this game, they were the clear favourites despite the fact that Kobe was carrying an injury and would only play the opening few minutes of the first quarter.

Wade opened the scoring for the East who surged to 6-0 before the West could even hit a shot. It was the West who also showed the tradition Allstar slack defence early on with the East stars allowed to just cruise to the basket. The West pulled off a surge mid quarter to cut the lead to one but this proved to be the East's quarter and the hungry underdogs surged back into the lead and the quarter ended with the East leading 34-28 and deservedly so.

The West never looked like challenging in the second quarter either. OK the East never really able to blow them away but with James getting the better of what was turning into a mini slam dunk contest, the West could only really get within five. Of course with classy dunks in the Allstar Game you can also get insane misses as well as cool assists but while both sets of players were in Allstar mood, the West as a team didn't feel competitive yet, East led 74-65 at the half.

The East continued to stretch their lead into the fourth, making the US commentators wonder how they were able to seemingly beat the West at their own game! The West did get within six at one point but with the East starting to hit three pointers through the likes of Allen and the West's shooting letting them down. Either way even with the game only traditionally getting competitive in the fourth quarter, it looked to be over by the end of the third, East leading 106-93.

Well it certainly looked like the game was going to be over in the opening minutes of the third but that would be forgetting the sort of players the West had to call on! Their big players came off the bench and they kicked in the overdrive. The result was an invincible seeming 10-0 surge which effectivly restarted the game and had the West leading 118-116 at one point. The East then kicked up a gear themselves with Howard doing his part and killed the game again late on 134-128 after the hottest ASG fourth quarter I can remember! Le Bron picked up the MVP with 27 points and 8 rebounds.

Since then the regular season has moved through the gears again and the side that's made the biggest headlines are the Celtics! They opened after the Allstar Game with three straight losses before going on a ten game winning streak including wins over the Bulls, Pistons and Cavs! They picked up one less after that before opening up a long road trip with a 99-77 win in Milwaukee which KG grabbing 19 points and giving his team the Atlantic division for the first time in my memory with a 52-13 record!

Elsewhere, the Central and Southeast divisions are still up for grabs but the Pistons and Magic have secured playoff spots at least. The Pistons are on a two game winning streak and are on a 48-18 record. The Magic are on a four game surge including a 103-94 win in Miami over a Heat side that has had one of it's worst seasons ever, they're already out of the playoff race. That leaves the Magic as Florida's main team once again with a 44-24 record.

So, if the playoffs were to start today they would look like this: In the East the Celtics would face the Nets, the Pistons would face the Sixers, the Magic would face the Wizards and the Cavs(4th seed) would face the Raptors(5). Out West, the Rockets(1st seed) would face the Warriors(8), the Lakers(2) would face the Mavs(7), the Hornets(3) would face the Spurs(6) and the Jazz(4) would face the Suns(5). The Clippers, Sonics, Grizzlies and TWolves are all out of the picture.

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