The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Team LeBron wins the All-Star Game
Kevin Durant had 31 points and seven rebounds, LeBron James added 19 points and Team LeBron overcame a big game from Giannis Antetokounmpo to defeat Team Giannis, 178-164.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> LeBron James was trading lob pass with Dwyane Wade again, one last time. Lobs from Kyrie Irving once again, too. And after making a stepback 3-pointer late, he stared down Joel Embiid to send a message without saying a word. Oh, this mattered. Team LeBron, down by 20 in the second half, finally got firing and went on to beat Team Giannis, 178164, in the All-Star Game on Feb. 17. MVP Kevin Durant scored 31 points for Team LeBron, the one that James drafted and led to victory in the captain’s-choice format for a second consecutive season. Klay Thompson scored 20, and James and Kawhi Leonard each scored 19 for the winners.
Giannis Antetokounmpo — the first-time captain — led everybody with 38 points for the club he drafted. Paul George and Khris Middleton each scored 20 points for Team Giannis, which got 17 apiece from Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook.
“We just started making shots,” Durant said.
Durant is now a two-time MVP, also winning it back in 2012. He lauded Charlotte for the weekend.
“Thanks for the hospitality,” Durant said. “It was an amazing weekend. Glad we capped it off with a ‘W.’ “
The highlights, as would be expected, were absurdly good, time and again.
Curry slammed the ball off the floor on a first-half fast break and watched it ricochet toward the rim with an apex that flirted with the top of the backboard. Too
high for most humans — but Antetokounmpo isn’t most humans. The freakishly long Greek star slammed Curry’s unconventional alleyoop pass home, with both benches reacting in disbelief.
It was not a defensive showcase, as always.
Team Giannis set an AllStar record with 23 field goals in the first quarter, topping the mark of 22 set on four other occasions — by both the West and the East in the first quarter of the 2017 game, and by the West in both the second and third quarters of the 2016 game.
The 53 points tied a onequarter All-Star record as well, matching the total by the West in the third quarter of the 2016 games and by the East in the first quarter of the 2017 game. But when it was time to get competitive, things tightened up considerably, at least by AllStar standards.
But when Team LeBron used a flurry of 3s to get back into it, everyone on the bench was standing — sometimes running from the bench and onto the court during play, the celebrations a bit more exuberant than what’s usually allowed.
The All-Star farewells for Miami’s Wade and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki were festive, as everyone wanted.
Nowitzki entered the game late in the first quarter and made his first three shots — all of them 3-pointers — before heading back to the bench. Wade started the second half and finished with seven points.
He got an alley-oop lob from James.