NBA All-Star Game
NBA All-Star Weekend | Feb. 17, 2008
The 2008 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 17 in New Orleans, will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio beginning at 8 p.m. EST.
LIVE 2008 NBA ALL-STAR GAME NOTES
InsideHoops.com follows the 2008 NBA All-Star Game with raw, unedited notes and obserations live as the game happens. Because we love you. Recap comes afterwards.
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EAST STARTERS: Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh Dwight Howard.
EAST BENCH: Chauncey Billups, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Richard Hamilton, Antawn Jamison, Rasheed Wallace.
Not playing for East due to injury: Caron Butler, Kevin Garnett.
WEST STARTERS: Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming.
WEST BENCH: Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Brandon Roy, David West, Carlos Boozer, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire.
And, the game has begun.
Two minutes in, the West leads 54 to 51. OK, I'm just kidding. All-Star games are high-scoring, but that's a bit much.
At 9:13 Kobe Bryant, who doesn't want to play beacuse his finger is hurt, exits the game. Steve Nash enters. Kobe could be done for the night.
AT 8:38 Jason Kidd fired an awesome semi no-look lob to LeBron James, who cut at the basket from the right baseline and crammed it.
Next play, Kidd on the fast break bounced the ball hard off the backboard trying to hit D-Wade, but the play was broken up.
A D-Wade layup makes it 14-5 East up.
West misses are turning into East fast breaks, resulting in easy baskets. Chris Bosh has several open dunks. At 6:24 it's 18-7 East.
It appears Bryant definitely is done for the evening.
LeBron James fires a fairly open three-pointer, with Carmelo Anthony running late at him. It missed, though. And then next play, Steve Nash uses a Yao Ming screen, gets near the paint, dishes to a standing-still Melo, who quickly uses an opening to get at the rim and hit a layup, plus a foul due to lazy defense.
After a timeout, the West looks more aggressive. Yao Ming, on the right baseline, hits a beautiful semi-fadeaway jumper, then Allen Iverson busts out for a fast-break layup, cutting the East lead to 4. And a few plays later, an Iverson fast break leads to a pass to Melo, who get fouled.
Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace are in.
Billups is working. First, a lean-in bank shot from the right elbow. Then a catch on a break for a layup plus the foul, though he misses the free throw. And then a sweet assist to teammate Ricahrd Hamilton who hits a layup. And then a short pass to Paul Pierce, who hits from outside, making it 26-17 East. Then, Billups misses from outside.
David West, who fans outside of New Orleans would still not recognize out on the street, is in, and scores.
A Rip Hamilton jumper from the right baseline is the final made shot of the first quarter.
End of first quarter: East 34, West 28.
Kidd is having fun tossing alley-oops, this time to LeBron, who isn't able to put it down, but Dwight 'Superman' Howard cleans it up and score.
Brandon Roy, in for the West, cuts, and Chris Paul, with eyes on all sides of his head, spots him and fires a perfect pass for a revere layup.
LeBron goes towards the basket, tosses it to Kidd, who fakes a few times and fires it back to LeBron, who goes in for an open dunk.
No one is playing defense. I could probably hit a few threes in this game.
It's hard to tell the different teams apart. Because the East uniforms are blue in the front, but a light silver in the back, while the West team uniforms are white in the front and gold in the back. Obviouly the blue and white fronts are easy to tell apart. But when an East player is facing in the opposite direction and a West player is forward, the silver and the white are very close to each other. Since not all the players on each team always face the same direction, it sometimes looks like there are three or four different teams out there. The gear does look cool, though. I want one of those warmup jackets.
There are just back and forth layups now, with no real defense being played aside from players reaching out as guys blow past them.
A fun exchange was Kidd lobbing high to LeBron, who misses, but Dwight Howard punches home the miss. And then a play later, LeBron pounded home a lob from Howard. With a Dwight Howard slam shortly later. It's now East 59-53 with 5:45 left in the second quarter.
Chris Paul is dishing tons of assists.
Iverson is showing that he was made to be a shooting guard, not a point guard. This is old news, but it's being confirmed before our eyes.
Halftime score: East 74, West 65
East halftime leaders: LeBron James (5-of-9) has 12 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists (3 turnovers). Dwight Howard (5-of-5) has 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Richard Hamilton has 9 points, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh each has 8 points. Rasheed Wallace has 5 rebounds.
West halftime leaders: Brandon Roy (5-of-7) has 11 points and 5 rebounds. Carmelo Anthony has 10 points and 4 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire has 10 points. Carlos Boozer has 8 points and 6 rebounds. Chris Paul has 7 points and 6 assists. Allen Iverson has 6 turnovers.
The East has jacked 19 three-pointers, hitting just 5. The West has only shot 6 threes, hitting 3. Both teams are blowing what few free throws they've taken. There are only two blocks in the entire game so far.
Third quarter:
The first bucket of the second half was a pretty one: Dwyane Wade, driing at the rim from the left side, goes at the rim, draws a reach-in foul from a backpeddling Steve nash, spins backwards and flips it in.
Kobe Bryant hasn't come out from the locker room. I know he's not playing again but I hope things are going OK with his finger. Maybe he should go and have the surgery, if he could be at full strength after the six-week recovery. Rather than him being semi-hurt all season and playoffs.
At 11:07 Yao Ming had some fun, firing a three-pointer from the left elbow. Missing it, but he was happy to take it. Manute Ming.
Iverson, tired of committing turnovers, set Tim Duncan up for an open dunk, but the big guy blew it. Maybe he knows Iverson got way more turnovers than assists in the first half and doesn't want to ruin that trend.
Dwight Howard dunks again, his 23,104th of the game.
Most of Kidd's lob attempts aren't being put down, but they're fun, because they make his teammates fire themselves into the air, like human pogo sticks. Maybe Kidd just likes seeing them jump.
Kidd has now passed to LeBron about 592 times on fast breaks. The "defense" is usually in proper position to prevent the finish, though.
LeBron is on pace for the All-Star MVP award.
Iverson runs a break, and shoots a layup over Kidd, but misses. Is he trying to mock Kidd by imitating Nets basketball this season?
It's a lob-fest, on the East at least. Every play is either a lob inside, or a layup attempt.
Ray Allen shows some flair, faking a behind-the-back pass and then going up for a layup. The East is up 95-79, around half-way through the third quarter.
The East has led the entire game. Maybe they should trade more All-Stars to the West to make it more fair.
Chris Paul enters and immediately destroys everyone and then dishes to Melo for an open finish at the rim.
Rasheed Wallace, who would rather be on a tropical island beach right now, misses a three.
At 3:50 David West, operating inside, got blocked by Rasheed Wallace, then by Antawn Jamison, then by Wallace again. It's a block party, and West is the guest of honor.
Steve Nash scores. He's little. And then Nash feeds David West, who this time is able to score without being blocked by every fan in the stands.
The West is coming on, and cuts the East lead to 5.
Sweetest layup of the game came from Ray Allen, who drove from the right side and flipped a reverse layup up, but after he had already gone way past the basket, so it was more like a short reverse one-handed "shot" than a mere layup. Go to the park and try to hit that. I bet you'll miss it a lot.
Paul Pierce is blazing, dumping in baskets faster than I dump in dunks from the free throw line. He and Ray Allen have scored the last big stack of East buckets.
End of third quarter: East 106, West 93.
Chris Paul fires a perfect bounce pass to a baseline-cutting Carlos Boozer, who had a layup or dunk but flubbed it, causing a few boos from fans who wanted CP3 to get an assist.
Amare Stoudemire, guarded by Dwight Howard, dribbles from the free throw line down the right side and crams hard. Is it on? It may be on.
CP3 races right down the middle, fakes a pass off the dribble yet maintains the dribble and instead dishes to Boozer, who puts it down. Pretty.
Paul is making a run, so is the West, who has cut the East lead to 108-103.
Fans get to vote for the All-Star game MVP this year. Right now I'd give it to LeBron James, but Chris Paul is coming on strong.
Amare slams again, giving the West a 10-0 run, until LeBron finally scores. But then Dirk htis a three.
A West fast break led by CP3 results in a lob to Brandon Roy, tying the game at 110.
Dirk Nowitki gets inside for a layup, giving the West their first lead of the game. But Billups, who tends to own 4th quarters, answers.
The West is using a massive lineup, with Dirk at small forward and Amare with Duncan also up front.
At 5:34 LeBron, guarded by Chris Paul off a switch, takes his time dribbling up top and fires a three-point airball, drawing jeers from fans.
Nowitzki, jealous of LeBron's airball, fires an outside airball of his own. He's struggling from three-point range this regular season.
At 3:28 Brandon Roy, dribbling at the free throw line, tosses it to Amare Stoudemire, who launches himself at the rim, drives at Jason Kidd, gets bumped by Dwight Howard while flipping in an off-balance layup, plus a foul.
Ray Allen, who can shoot, nails a three.
CP3, fighting hard for the game's MVP award, dishes to a cutting Brandon Roy for a fast layup.
Ray Allen, spotting up a few feet behind the three-point line, bounces in a three, his 4th of the game. CP3, trying to be Ray allen, does the same, but misses. Ray Allen, open in transition from the right elbow in three-point range, fires and hits again. He's up to 23 points. The East is up 125-122 with over a minute left in the game.
After a timeout, a CP3 three ties the game. Ray Allen tries to answer but misses.
The East is swarming on defense, and it results in a turnover after a bad Dirk pass. LeBron brings the ball up, operating from three-point range on the right side, then goes completely insane unleashing a crossover dribble that leaves Amare behind, penetrates the middle, and dunks on about 80 people.
CP3, operating up top, fips a short pass to Dirk Nowitzki, then sets a screen that slams hard into Ray Allen, and the refs call CP3 for it.
Dwyane Wade, who would love to be on a team that wins once in a while, penetrates, draws a foul, and puts in a double-clutch layup, plus the foul. Though he misses the free throw. East up four with 36 seconds left in the game.
CP3 flips it to Dirk Nowitzki who fires a three-pointer from the left elbow, but Wade, in his face, rejects it. The West recovers but misses, Jason Kidd gets the ball, runs, and fires a perfect long pass to Ray Allen who, while possibly getting away with an extra step, races in for a layup, putting the East up 6 with 16 seconds left.
CP3 brings it up, gives it to Brandon Roy who nails a three-pointer from the left side.
The East inbounds to Ray Allen, who is immediately fouled by CP3. Allen never misses free throws. He hits the first, and then -- yeah -- misses the second. It's East up 132-128. Allen has around 26 points.
Ray Allen get fouled again, with 1.8 seconds left. He makes both.
Final score: East 134, West 128.
Fun game!
The East's LeBron James was awarded the 2008 NBA All-Star game MVP award.
For the East: Ray Allen (10-of-14, 5-of-9 threes) had 28 points in just 19 minutes. LeBron James (12-of-22) had 27 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists (4 turnovers), 2 steals and 2 blocks. Dwight Howard (7-of-7) had 16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Chris Bosh (7-of-15) had 14 points and 7 rebounds. Dwyane Wade (7-of-12) had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Paul Pierce scored 10. Jason Kidd dished 10 assists.
For the West: Brandon Roy (8-of-10) had 18 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Carmelo Anthony (8-of-17) had 18 points and 7 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire (8-of-11) had 18 points and 5 rebounds. Chris Paul (7-of-14) had 16 points, 3 rebounds, 14 assists (just 2 turnovers) and 4 steals. Carlos Boozer (7-of-15) had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki (just 5-of-14) had 13 points and 4 rebounds.
The best East players were LeBron, Dwight Howard and Ray Allen. The best West players were Chris Paul and Brandon Roy.
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LIVE UNEDITED INSIDEHOOPS 2007 ALL-STAR GAME NOTES
Jeff Lenchiner, editor of InsideHoops.com here, typing raw, totally unedited comments. Don't judge my sentence structure. Hang here with me. I'm watching the All-Star game with you. Reload this page every 10 minutes for updated comments. And on our forum there's an All-Star Game thread where tons of fans are commenting and discussing the game live as it happens. Join them.
Mason, the arena announcer who did the player introductions for the 2007 All-Star game did an awesome job. The dude nailed it.
Wayne Newton did a nice job singing Viva Las Vegas before, in the middle of and after the player intros.
A female singer named Roxanne Potvin, from Circus Olay (yeah, I don't know how to spell Olay and I'm not googling it right now) sang the Canadian national anthem. And I'm sure you're glad I said "female" singer, as if there are a lot of dudes named Roxanne. Anyway, she did a nice job.
The East starters are Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Shaquille O'Neal. It's Bosh's first all-star start.
The West starters are Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and filling in for the injured Yao Ming is Dirk Nowitzki.
LeBron James came out just before tipoff, took the mic at halfcourt and gave a shoutout to the fans, instructing them to buckle their seatbelts and enjoy the game. They will, sir. Just don't layup when you can dunk.
The opening tip turned into a volleyball match, landing in the hands of the West. Within a split second Gilbert Arenas jacked a shot and missed. For the West a lob to Kevin Garnett was pulled down by KG and put up for a layup and the first bucket of the 2007 NBA All-Star game.
A Kobe Bryant bank-shot made it 4-0 West. But Dwyane Wade quickly answered with a jumper. And the very next play D-Wade stole it from Tracy McGrady and went in for an easy dunk.
The nicest play so far, which was actually a missed shot, was LeBron James driving at the rim from the right and lobbing it into Shaq, who was unable to tomahawk it in. The younger Shaq would have put it down.
McGrady has handles, and he dribbled behind his back, drove and dished baseline to a waiting Tim Duncan, whose jumper made it 10-4 West at 8:10.
Dirk Nowitzki has subbed out early, replaced by Shawn Marion. The West's lineup isn't quite as oversized anymore.
Gil Zero hit a three, helped by a Chris Bosh screen. And a play later Arenas caught a long football pass for a layup.
Back-to-back dunks by Kobe Bryant and Wade made it West 14-11 and picked the pace up slightly. So far the game's been medium-paced. But a wet spot on the floor caused a brief delay.
Dwight Howard is now in for Shaq.
After a timeout, suddenly the game is faster. And the dunk of the night so far is a LeBron James "runaway truck" play on a break.
Jason Kidd, getting some plugs by the announcers for his well-publicized divorce, is sitting courtside. He already has a triple-double; impressive considering he's injured and not playing.
At the 6:00 mark in teh first quarter the East leads 15-14.
Some Suns action went down as Amare Stoudemire missed a tough fadeaway jumper in the paint, but teammate Shawn Marion jumped about 29 times in the span of half a second to tip it in.
Tony Parker and Josh Howard are in for the West, and Jermaine O'Neal for the East. I think it's cool that J-Ho made it. He and Caron Butler are right on the border and while they could be back, it's possible this is the last All-Star game for either of them. Don't get excited, I'm not predicting they're both done forever. Just saying, there are a number of guys at their positions in both conferences that were very close to being here.
At 4:11 LeBron got creative and threw the ball off the backboard while charging down the middle of the paint and tried to fly in for the spectacular alleyoop finish, made famous by a pair that McGrady threw down and one that Vince Carter completed in recent years. But LeBron suffered a brief scary moment when Amare Stoudemire got stuck underneath him, causing a miss. It was almost a scary fall but LeBron sensed it early and landed safely, getting immediately up with no stoppage of play.
Now on offense, Amare, realizing he shouldn't fade away, muscled his way at the rim for very short semi-layup type jumper, and scored. And then a play later fought his way in and did it again, this time with a foul.
Carmelo Anthony is currently playing shooting guard, alongside Tony Parker.
Mehmet Okur, with his usual hair gell and facial hair, enters. He's the hair gell leader so far. Though, I'll admit to not even thinkinig about it until now.
Melo, right side near the baseline, backsteps a few times until he had some jump-shot room and swishes it. And a play later catches a lob and slams an alleyoop to put the West up 37-27. Vinsanity immediately responded with some sort of twisting dunk that made me blink.
Unless I'm forgetting someone, Richard Hamilton is the only mask-wearing All-Star this year. That's key. Because if the game gets lousy he can take it off and start playing frisbee with the fans.
End of first quarter: West 39, East 31.
I'm a fan of the new D-Wade Gatorade commercial, where a nerdy/responsible D-Wade consciousness and a flamboyant no-fear consciousness, represented in the form of two mini-heads floating atop Wade's shoulder, are screaming advice to Dwyane as to whether he should go in for a dunk or take a jumper. Good spot. So they get a plug.
And while I'm on that, adidas gets a plug too. Because they've been in the InsideHoops.com ad rotation for a few months now. Check out the adidas mini-section on our site with the Gil Zero sneakers, KG Bounce, the T-Macs and new all-star gear.
Ray Allen starts the second quarter off with a three. He's a moviestar, you know.
A T-Mac three puts the West up 15 at 10:20. The east needs to wake up. And no sooner typed than Chauncey Billups bounced the ball off the backboard while Vinsanity soared in from the left side for an uncontested one-handed finish.
Why is the West winning? They're 4-of-5 from three-point range in the two and a half second quarter minute that have gone by.
This game needs some Shaq-Fu breakdancing.
And no sooner said than Shaq gets put back in, and hits his first field goal. Shockingly enough, it was a dunk. And right after completing it he grabbed McGrady's head and planted a kiss on the back of it. Or faked it. Hopefully the latter. At least it wasn't anything like Dick Bavetta showing his affection for Charles Barkley.
At 7:28 with the West up 56-39 Gil Zero, guarded by Tony Parker, pulled up at the top in three-point range, jacking a three that missed. He's not shy with the rock.
There's too much isolation play in this game. Very little cutting, and players aren't hitting cutters. Somewhere, international players on Euroleague teams are watching and rolling their eyes. It's fun so far, though.
Shawn Marion is playing hard. So is Amare Stoudemire. The West as a whole is just a slightly higher level of intensity than the East, thus the 61-43 lead at the 6:04 mark. And a Tony Parker outside jumper wets the net putting his squad up 20.
The East are going out like suckers, so far. Get these fools off the court and put Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing in.
Arenas jacks a three again, from the left side. Another miss. The West is around 5-of-9 from three-point range while the East is 2-of-11.
And the West has 21 assists so far; just 13 for the East.
At the 3:45 mark and the West up 18, Amare leads the West with 11 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Melo is now 5-of-6 for 10. Kobe had 8. For the East, LeBron has 11 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Dwight Howard is 4-of-5 for 8. Shaq and Wade each has six.
At 2:42 Wade drove in and Kevin Garnett, alone on defense in the paint, swatted it like I swat bad cards dealt to me at the blackjack table.
The top star in this building? InsideHoops.com's own Bobby "The Voice" Ciafardini, totally overshadowing lesser celebs like Prince, Diddy, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Eva Longoria, and the Terminator.
The West is playing basketball. The East is going through the motions.
With a second left Dwight Howard missed up close and went up for a follow-up dunk, getting fouled, and grimacing a bit, clutching the left side of his lower back. No big deal, he's fine. And although I think his first free throw went in (I didn't see), the second one was about a foot and a half off to the left. It reminded me of that Yao Ming commercial where some dude playing a video game was able to control Yao's shot by moving his baseball hat.
End of first half: West 79, East 59.
InsideHoops.com stat analysis of the first half: The West is shooting 35-of-64 and has hit 6-of-11 three-pointers. The East is just 26-of-60 and 5-of-17 threes. Neither team went to the line much. The West has a five-board rebound edge. Assists tell the tale as the West leads 25-16 in dishes. The West got 9 steals, the East just 5. And the East has no blocks yet.
For the West, Kobe Bryant has 17 points on 14 shot attempts, plus three steals. Carmelo Anthony, 6-of-7 shooting, has 12 points. Amare Stoudemire on 5-of-8 shooting has 11 points, 5 rebounds and two assists. Every West player is shooting well.
For the East, LeBron James
The halftime entertainment was Toni Braxton, singing like someone stuck an apple in her mouth and made her keep it there. I say this every year, but how about some rock and roll? As usual this is a nice song, and as usual it's not "basketball music."
And for the second song she's now singing some sort of eclectic Monk-chant sort of song with some tribal drums and some dudes in exotic costumes doing impressive dances on the court. Very talented (the dancers). Though, not to repeat myself for the 7th year in a row, this doesn't "feel like basketball" at all in any way.
And thankfully, that's over. Braxton didn't sing well.
Now Christia Aguilera is up. And her first five seconds blows away whatever Toni Braxton just sang. Aguilera isn't "basketball" either but she's singing that high-energy hit of hers that does have some punch to it. The "Ain't no other man but you" song. At least it's fast. And hits you. It's good, for the style.
Now Christina is doing that Candyman song. "He's a sweet-talkin sugar-coated candyman!" This isn't basketball at all, but at least Christina and the backup singers are snapping their beautiful booties back and forth pretty nicely. That's a step in the right direction.
I want Metallica! Well, I prefer beautiful girls. But, musically, gimme some hard rock.
Christina really is amazing live. Even if she isn't basketball, she's just absurdly talented. And she's hot. I can't complain about her. And generally I'm all about the positives, whenever they exist.
And, the performances are over. Aguilera was terrific as always. Braxton was a disappointment.
And back to basketball. The third quarter has begun.
Both teams have picked the pace up but the West is just more intense. Give some credit to Shawn Marion, who isn't racking up big stats but is pushing hard every second he's on the floor. With 7:25 left in the third it's West 95 East 71.
No, Beyonce, I won't go out with you. I could never do Jay-Z like that. Sorry, baby. Stick with your man.
The adidas all-star warmup jackets are hot. I want one. Don't know if I like the blue or red better, though. They're both hot. I want both.
A lob to Vince Carter was broken up and turned into a Kobe lob to Marion, who slammed it, putting the West over 100. And seconds later Amare slams again. He's rocking the quarter and has 12 of his 23 points in the period. West leads 103-74 at 4:55.
All alone, Marion windmills it with the left hand, putting the West up 31. East coach Eddie Jordan needs to do something right now. The game isn't over yet, folks. A 31-point All-Star game lead is like an 18 point regular game lead. Still tough to come back from, but possible.
The West is shooting 58% for the game. THe East around 43% or so.
Let Shaq play point guard. Since the East has no one even pretending to dictate their offense.
At 2:05 Melo grabbed a rebound and for the fun of it pounded the ball into the glass before pulling it down. Kids will be imitating that in the playground tomorrow. If they're still awake. Considering it's a 30 point game, they may all be asleep.
Should I make more jokes about chicks? Seeing as how there isn't a lot to comment on as far as the game goes. Yes? OK. Here:
Listen Mya. You're cute and all. But I'm busy, baby. I'll text you, though. Next week.
We're in the early 4th now. A Kevin Garnett jumper from the top of the key puts the West up 121-91. But LeBron answers with a three. He now has 21 points.
Mehmet Okur's first-ever field goal in an all-star game came around 10:20. A baseline jumper from the left side. No defender was within 10 feet. He had literally 2-3 long seconds to line the shot up and swished it.
The crowed is silent. Maybe bring Christina Aguilera back.
And at 8:23 Shaq unleashed his point guard show, dribbling between his legs a few times at the top in three-point range with a grinning Okur guarding him, "driving" (or something) and missing a jumper. Melo was amused. As was I. Do it again, Shaq!
The West has now set an all-star record with 47 assists, and a full 7 and a half minutes left in the game.
Kobe and Marion throw down back-to-back uncontested dunks, putting the West up by 30.
The East are a bunch of chumps that aren't cutting, aren't hitting the nonexistent cutters, aren't hustling on either end, and deserve to be fined. Kidding about the fine, of course. Mostly.
Kobe is racking up buckets. He has 26 points on 11-of-19 shooting plus 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals. Amare has 23 on 11-of-15 shooting. Melo and the Matrix have 18 each. For the East, LeBron has 26, 5 and 4 on 10-of-17 shooting. Dwight Howard has 16 and 9 on great shooting. Everyone else on the East has 10 or less.
Caron Butler is 0-of-6 for the game. He's the only scoreless All-Star.
We're down to the final four minutes. Someone do something fun.
The highlight for the East actually took place during a timeout. Some Elvis impersonators were dunking off of trampolines, and Gilbert Arenas joined in, probably scaring the Wizards ownership something fierce.
And in the final minute or so Kobe did something the East players probably thought was illegal: He made a quick move and exploded at the rim, throwing down a beautiful 180. Some "Kobe!" chants began from the fans. He'll probably win the game's MVP award.
It's over. The West wins, 153-132.
And yes, a few minutes after the final buzzer David Stern addressed the fans and announced that the 2007 NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player is Kobe Bryant. It's the second time he's won the award.
"We had a good time. It was a great weekend. Hopefully we put on a pretty good show," said Bryant.
Kobe liked being in Vegas. "It was great. Hopefully we can come back."
This was an extremely lazy game. It felt like preseason, except with all-stars out there.
You can see the full box score here.
Later tonight InsideHoops.com will post interviews from All-Star Saturday, another article or two about the weekend, and more. ANd tomorrow, interviews from the All-Star game.
Go Inside Hoops every day! The NBA trade deadline is Thursday. March Madness starts in two weeks. The NBA playoffs start three weeks after March Madness ends. We never stop. InsideHoops.com is your online basketball home. We love you.
2007 NBA ALLSTAR GAME PREVIEW
East Starters: Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Shaquille O'Neal
West Starters: Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki.
The only injury substitution in the starting lineup is Dirk Nowitzki, who replaces Yao Ming. Yao was voted as a starter by the fans. Dirk was voted as a reserve along with the other reserves by the coaches. West All-Star head coach Mike D'Antoni had the decision of who to start at center for Yao, and he selected Dirk.
This year’s NBA All-Stars will be outfitted for the first time by adidas who have created new uniforms inspired by the city of Las Vegas. The deep blue colors of the East All-Star uniforms and the rich red colors of the West All-Star uniforms speak to the bright colors of its famous Strip. Jerseys have "East" and "West" wordmarks on the front along with individual player name, number, and team logo embroidered on the back.
The Phoenix Suns trio of two-time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Amaré Stoudemire lead the list of 14 players that have been selected by the coaches as reserves for the 2007 NBA All-Star Game which will be played on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Joining the three Suns as Western Conference reserves are first-time All-Star forward Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz, Allen Iverson of the Denver Nuggets, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks and Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs.
Two Eastern Conference players are also making their initial All-Star appearance as forwards Caron Butler of the Washington Wizards and Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic has each been invited to Las Vegas. Guards Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons and Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets, forwards Vince Carter of the New Jersey Nets and Jermaine O’Neal of the Indiana Pacers also were named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team.
The 14 players selected -- seven each from the Eastern and Western Conferences -- were chosen by the 30 NBA head coaches, who were asked to vote for seven players in their respective conferences -- two guards, two forwards, one center and two players regardless of position. They were not permitted to vote for players from their own team.
Previously selected as starters for the East through the 2007 NBA All-Star Balloting Program presented by T-Mobile were Cleveland’s LeBron James, Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade, Toronto’s Chris Bosh and Washington’s Gilbert Arenas. Houston’s Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett and San Antonio’s Tim Duncan will start for the West.
The selections of Nash (Canada), Nowitzki (Germany) and Parker (France) along with voted-starters Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Yao (China), gives the 2007 NBA All-Star Game five international players.
Should any player be unable to participate in the All-Star Game due to injury, NBA Commissioner David Stern will select the replacement.
Phoenix head coach Mike D’Antoni and the Suns’ coaching staff will be on the sidelines for the Western Conference All-Stars, as they previously clinched the best winning percentage through games of Feb. 4 among eligible Western Conference teams for the All-Star coaching honors. The Eastern Conference Coach is yet to be determined with the coaching staffs of the Washington Wizards (27-18, .600) and Cleveland Cavaliers (26-19, .578) still in contention. Last year’s All-Star coaches – Dallas’ Avery Johnson and Detroit’s Flip Saunders – are not eligible this year.
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