Durant MVP in wild win for Team LeBron
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — LeBron James was trading lob passes with Dwyane Wade one last time. He was catching lobs from Kyrie Irving once again, too. And after making a step-back three-pointer late, he stared down Joel Embiid to send a message without saying a word.
Oh, this mattered to James — and to Team LeBron, too.
Team LeBron, which trailed by 20 points early in the second half, finally got firing and went on to beat Team Giannis 178-164 in the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday. MVP Kevin Durant scored 31 points for Team LeBron, which James drafted and led to victory in the captain’s-choice format for a second consecutive season.
‘‘You put me on the floor, I love to compete,’’ James said in the interview room after the game. ‘‘I’m a competitor, no matter what it is. I was competing to see if I could get to this table first.’’
He wasn’t kidding. He then turned to NBA spokesman Mark Broussard, asked whether he was the first player to get into the room and grinned when told he was.
‘‘See what I’m talking about?’’ James said.
Klay Thompson added 20 points and James and Kawhi Leonard 19 each for the winners.
‘‘It’s all sweet to me,’’ Durant said after earning his second All-Star MVP award to go with the one he claimed in 2012. ‘‘It’s hard to rank because everything’s special. But it’s cool to be out there with some of the best players to ever play the game. And to win MVP in front of my family and friends is pretty sweet.’’
First-time captain Giannis Antetokounmpo led everybody with 38 points on 17-for-23 shooting for the team he drafted. Paul George and Khris Middleton each added 20 points for Team Giannis.
‘‘Just being the leader of a team, it wasn’t as tough as I thought,’’ Antetokounmpo said. ‘‘My teammates, the guys in the locker room, encouraged me to step up and take it serious and play hard.’’
The highlights were absurdly good, as expected.
Stephen Curry slammed the ball off the court on a fast break in the first half and watched it ricochet toward the rim with an apex that flirted with the top of the backboard. It would have been too high for most humans, but Antetokounmpo isn’t most humans. The ‘‘Greek Freak’’ slammed Curry’s unconventional alley-oop pass home, with both benches reacting in disbelief.
‘‘I thought we put on a great show tonight,’’ Team Giannis guard Kemba Walker said.
It wasn’t a defensive showcase, either. Team Giannis set an AllStar record with 23 field goals in the first quarter, and its 53 points in the quarter matched a one-quarter All-Star record, too. And Team LeBron got back into the game with a flurry of three-pointers in a 50-point third quarter.
‘‘We got the win,’’ Team LeBron guard James Harden said. ‘‘That’s all that matters.’’
And the All-Star farewells for Wade and Dirk Nowitzki — who were added to the game by commissioner Adam Silver to honor their career bodies of work — were festive, as everyone wanted.
Nowitzki scored nine points on three three-pointers in four minutes, and Wade scored seven points in 10 minutes. He also got an alleyoop lob from good friend and former teammate James and threw an alley-oop lob to James.
When the third quarter ended, every player gathered behind Wade and Nowitzki as they were honored with commemorative jerseys at midcourt.
‘‘Thank you to the commissioner and the NBA for allowing us to both be on this stage again,’’ Nowitzki said.
‘‘Exactly what Dirk said,’’ Wade said as he took the microphone. ‘‘We’re very thankful for this opportunity . . . . The game is in great hands. It’s easy to walk away right now.’’