ALLSTARS BOW TO KOBE AGAIN

 

(Image taken from NBA.com)

What can be said about the NBA Allstar weekend that hasn't already been said before? The best players in the East play the best in the West - that's the main thing that goes in the history books. And yet there is plenty of stuff that while it doesn't get forgotten, it's not seen as important. Hell some would say that the Allstar weekend itself is a joke, just a fluffy piece of razzmatazz but if it is just a joke, it's certainly one that makes a lot of people smile. For this year, the show would take place in LA for the first time since '04 and the home of both the Lakers and Clippers of course. All eyes were on what the representatives of those teams in particular could bring to the party.

The weekend started on the Friday with the Rookie Game. On this occasion the Rookies beat the Sophomores 148-140 with John Wall, Wizard rookie taking the MVP award purely due to his assist numbers. Next up came the Celebrity Game where the East beat the West 54-49 but well...Justin Bieber of all people was given the MVP award despite being on the losing West team and scoring only 8 points! Such is the power of fangirls! The main event of the night was arguably the D League Allstar Game though. The East won that matchup 115-108 but it was the West's Courtney Sims, called up from the Iowa Energy, coached by Nick Nurse who cut his teeth in the BBL, that got the MVP!

As for the Saturday events, first up came the Shooting Star Challenge which this time around involved teams from Atlanta, Chicago, Texas and LA. The Texas side were on fire in the first round and local support wasn't able to help LA make that halfcourt shot and so they failed to make the final with Chicago also getting booted. So, Atlanta vs Texas for the final though Texas were unable to keep up their first round form, and an Atlanta crew made up of Al Horford, Coco Miller(WNBA Atlanta Dream) and 90s Hawks player Steve Smith won the trophy with a time of 1 minute ten seconds, the first time that team had lifted the trophy.

Next up was the Skills challenge, between Chris Paul(Hornets), Steven Curry(Warriors), Derrick Rose(Bulls), John Wall(Wizards) and Russell Westbrook(Thunder). Well none of the competitors in this field lacked class and Westbrook in particular did the business and the final round turned out to be him vs Curry. Once there, Curry really stepped it up to give the Warriors something to be proud of, blowing everyone's previous times away to the tune of 28.2 seconds. After all that he even suggested that the current course wasn't a true test of a basketball players skills! Could we be seeing a dribble-and-sprint contest next year?

Next up was the Three point contest between Ray Allen(Celtics), Kevin Durant(Thunder), Daniel Gibson(Cavs), James Jones(Heat), Paul Pierce(Celtics) and Dorell Wright(Warriors). Well the guy in that pack that everyone drools over in terms of three point shooting is Allen and sure enough, he did the business early on. As did Paul Pierce, as surprisingly did Jones, a guy who even Heat fans don't tend to take that seriously - hell, he was the one guy in the field I didn't really know about. Yet when it came down to him vs the two Celtics he hit the hot shots and collected the trophy. A cliched case of 15 minutes of fame for the guy who was back benchwarming when the regular season restarted.

Next up, the one competition that tends to get remembered as much as the big game itself - the Slam dunk contest! This time round it was the turn of Blake Griffin(Clippers), Brandon Jennings(Bucks), Serge Ibaka(Thunder) and JaVale McGee(Wizards) to try and make our jaws drop. Well in the early stages there were only two guys that looked to have what it took - McGee and Griffin. In the final round, well McGee, credit where credit's due did some pretty good stuff himself. Griffin though...well for starters he came up with a slight modification of Vince Carter's legendary 2000 effort. And then...this. McGee had to wipe himself off, Griffin was the champion.

Then it was time for the big rumble. The best in the East against the best in the West. The local crowd certainly knew who it was rooting for, the team that had their Lakers and Clipper on it. The East squad also had to deal with the Celtics and Heat contingents winding each other up in training. The big intro period is always fun to check out but on this occasion we had to settle for Howard and Kobe introducing their starting fives in a pre-prepared TV presentation. Still with a fired up crowd everyone was certainly well prepared for the insanity that was to come. Not important? A joke? Who the hell cares, time for our annual dose of pure fun.

Well the East started out by exploding into action and led 4-0 with 11:17 left in the 1st but over a minute into the game the West got their first bucket and then turned the game round only for the East to level it again. As the game went on the West really took over and looked the much smoother side with the locals giving the East's Celtic contingent in particular plenty of grief. As for the West, well to the locals delight the Lakers contingent in particular put on a good show. They certainly had to reason to complain. Their man Kobe Bryant was leading the way with 11 points as the West led 37-27 at the end of the first quarter. So far so awesome.

The 2nd quarter came and the West showed little mercy though the East did go on to start to cut the gap. They were certainly doing enough to both keep the West honest and match them in terms of spectacular plays, cutting the gap down again and again. The West responded by stepping it up again and retaking the double digit lead but the East certainly weren't prepared to lie down and once again cut the gap to six with just over three minutes remaining in the half. That was fine by the West though who just turned on the after burners, the lack of an outright center not hurting them one bit. Bryant was now on 21 points with Kevin Durant backing him up with 15. West led 76-64 at half time.

The East first order of business in the third quarter was to cut the gap to and they were then about to put enough pressure on the West to seriously cut the lead down. The West managed to hold them off but the East still cut the gap to four with about seven and a half minutes left in the quarter yet the West were still able to surge back with a double digit lead. After that, well the East were just treading water really though the contest was surely not over quite yet. In the meantime though, the West were definately running the show and Kobe made their main man look like a mug on at least one occasion. He was now on 34 points, Durant on 20, with Pau Gasol proving further backup with 14. West led 117-100.

The 4th quarter though is when the Allstar game usually gets serious and the East did just that, cutting the gap significantly. Yet the West came back from that - though just as they did the East cut the gap yet again, though they needed a bigger surge. They certainly weren't done though and the gap came down further. Cue a timeout talk from the East's biggest star that sounded more like something you'd hear during a Finals game! It looked like it was doing the trick though as the gap was cut to two with just over two and a half minutes remaining...yet the West managed to put out the fire. Kobe finished with 37 points, Durant with 34, Gasol with 17 and Russell Westbrook providing further backup with 12. The West won 148-143.

So, congratulations to the West for their first Allstar Game win since '09. One other thing about that game is that Kobe Bryant was MVP(OK, so he was joint MVP with Shaquille O'Neal, then with the Suns but let's not get nitpicky). Fast forward two years and...the basketball fans of LA wouldn't have it any other way, that makes this the fourth time Kobe's won the Allstar MVP award and the first time he's won it outright since '07! The last guy to pick up four NBA Allstar MVP awards was Bob Petit and that was way back in 1962 when we was assigned from the Louis Hawks to the West team! It's amazing how long Kobe's been around and always as a member of the NBA's elite - it'll be very wierd to see him retire.

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