NBA All Star Game, Final Score: Team LeBron dominates late and wins

Team LeBron gets down to business in the fourth quarter to secure a comeback win against Team Giannis

Nobody played defense for most of the game, but Team LeBron brought the energy late as they took over in the fourth quarter and erased a double digit deficit and won going away. Kevin Durant was the leading scorer for the winning team with 31 points, and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 38 points in an losing effort for the team named after him.

Game Flow

Team Giannis started fast, with Giannis Antetokounmpo doing most of the damage early. Dirk Nowitzki entered the game late in the first quarter and sank two deep three point shots as Team G led 53-37 after one quarter.

Team LeBron made a little run at Team G midway through the quarter, but they pulled ahead late and led 95-82 at the half.

Team Giannis went cold in the third quarter when their namesake went to the bench, and Damian Lillard was red hot for Team Lebron, hitting deeeeeeeep threes to tie the game up late in the third. Team LeBron briefly took the lead late, but Team Giannis held on for a 131-130 lead after three.

Fans were treated to a three point shooting exhibition in the fourth quarter as players on both teams hit clutch shots and the score seesawed back and forth early in the quarter. But Team LeBron started to take over the game halfway through the quarter as defense began to make an appearance and team Giannis no longer had the wide-open shots they had enjoyed until then. Kevin Durant hit clutch shots for Team-L, while Steph Curry uncharactistically missed key shots for the Giannis’s. The Lebron’s finished on a 30-11 run to win 178-164.

Random Thoughts

• The All Star jerseys were really cool this year. They were classic black and white, but had the team logos on them so that the players could honor their teams. It’s a big step up from the old generic All Star jerseys that were just boring.
• Nikola Jokic was probably the least athletic player on the court, but he had a huge impact. Young bigs should watch his game and see how to play without having to jump a whole lot.
• I wasn’t a big fan of the schoolyard teams picked by a captain style, but I have to admit that it worked. The teams were well matched, and didn’t have problems with mismatched talent pools that sometimes happened with the conference teams. The league should go all the way with this concept and just pick the all stars league-wide instead of by conference.
• LaMarcus Aldridge played more than I expected him to, but he was mostly invisible. This kind of game isn’t really suited to his style of play.
• Giannis was the best player in the game, but his team was less talented, and it showed late when Team LeBron turned up the heat on defense. I think he should have won the MVP over Durant, but I’m not too upset by it.
• Kenny the Jet compared Giannis to one of my favorite and underrated superheroes.

Up Next

Games that count return on January 21, and the Spurs play again on Friday night against the Raptors and LaMarcus Aldridge’s Team LeBron teammate, Kawhi Leonard.

Source: Pounding The Rock