Photo Credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times
In the first half it appeared to be a run away by the West who scored a record breaking 88 points. The East’s offense was not the problem as they managed to put up 69, but where was the defense? The East was letting stars like Blake Griffin dunk all over them. I know this is just a pick up game for them, but the fans do not pay top dollar to see a lackadaisical effort. Some stars did shine though with Kobe Bryant taking Michael Jordan’s record of most points scored in All-Star games of 262 points. It is to be expected though, I cannot remember a year when Kobe did not make it to All-Star who doesn’t want to see Kobe play?
In the second half, the game really picked up. Miami Heat superstar Dwayne Wade committed the only flagrant foul of the game in which he left Bryant with a bloody nose. It turns out that Bryant actually suffered a nasal fracture. As hard as Kobe played, he did not get MVP honors, that went to Oklahoma City Thunder player Kevin Durant. Durant scored 36 points for the West bringing his total to 85 points for his three All-Star appearances.
If the East were to have won the game, MVP honors would have most likely gone to Lebron James who put on quite the show. He tied the All-Star record for the most three-pointers made, six. James looks set to pass Bryant’s newly set record of most points as he has 207 points already and seems to have a lot more All-Star games in front of him. Hopefully, we can get a dunk contest out of him already! The final score of the game was 152-149.
