Damian Lillard playing in this year’s NBA All-Star Game. (Photo Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
By Joe Curry, Staff Writer
The NBA All-Star weekend wrapped up with the All-Star game on Sunday night. It was an entertaining game that marked a return to the East-West conference matchup format after six years of the team captain playground-style draft format. It was a record-breaking game for players on both teams, with the East easily taking the win.
Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard announced that the East was going after the all-time points record for the All-Star game. They succeeded in breaking it by quite a wide margin. Not only was the Eastern Conference the first team in the game’s history to break the 200-point threshold with a score of 211, but they smashed the previous record of 196 set by the Western Conference in 2016.
Although they lost, the West also contributed to some of the record-breaking. Both teams combined to score 193 points in the first half to break last year’s score of 191 and combined for a final score of 397 to crush the 374 points put up in 2017. The West’s 186, although resulting in a loss, put them as the fourth-highest scorers in All-Star game history, which was the most points scored by any losing team.
Standout performances by individual players were not hard to miss. As usual, and somewhat to the dismay of people looking for some heavier competition in the All-Star game, the game was offense-heavy. A total of 42 three-pointers broke the previous record of 35 that was set in 2019.
Damian Lillard walked away as the MVP of the evening. Coming off of a win in the three-point contest on Saturday night, Lillard scored 39 points and made 11 three-pointers. Other contenders included Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who Pacers’ fans argued was more deserving of the award, given that the game took place in their home city, and he scored 32 points, going 10-for-14 from three. Five of those three-pointers were scored in the first four minutes of the game.
Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves led the scoring of the night with an impressive 50 points scored in a little under 28 minutes of playing time for the West. Other high-point scorers included Oklahoma Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 31, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown with 36, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo with 26, and Celtics forward Jayson Tatum with 20.
As mentioned above, some were critical of the lack of competitiveness among the players in the All-Star game, which has long been known for its high-point scoring and minimal defensive play.
However, as Lebron James expressed after the game, all players were able to remain safe and uninjured thanks to the lack of intensity. Some viewers and commentators have expressed frustration with the players’ focus on scoring threes and dunking rather than putting their best efforts forward to maintain a real sense of competition.
What can’t be understated, however, is that the performance by the players remains impressive no matter how much intensity was put into defensive play. Although the NBA still attempts to find a way to balance entertaining highlights and competitive play at the All-Star game, the weekend will surely go down as a career highlight for Lillard and many of the other players.
