All-Star Weekend 2014-2015This years All-Star weekend took place in the Madison Square Garden, arguably the most famous stadium in the world. This was one the most competitive All-star weekend ever, with both the Rising Stars Challenge as well as the All-Star game being extremely hard fought, with some actual defense this time. The 3-point contest was probably the most star-filled one ever and the dunk contest introduced us to up and coming stars in the making who have exceptional leaping abilities. Let's now look back and this memorable weekend
Rising Stars ChallengeTeam Chuck: 88Team Shaq: 93This year team Shaq won once again led by the game's
MVP,
Mason Plumlee who had a 20/10 game along with 3 blocks. Chuck's team was lead by rookie phenomenon
Andrew Wigging who had a team high 26 points, along with 5 makes beyond the three point line. This was the first time we ever experienced a rookie-sophomore game like this one, where there was a lot of defense, a few technicals here and there, and a lot of pride involved. Hopefully this leads to a few good rivalries in the future.
Foot Locker 3-Point ContestConsistency proved to be the key for Klay ThompsonThe 3-point contest was filled with stars, from top to bottom. The participants were
Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, Isaiah Thomas, Chandler Parsons, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. All of these players were in top 8 three points made, excluding only Damian Lillard and our own Kyle Lowry. Unfortunately Curry(8) and Harden(10) struggled and did not make past the first round along with Chandler Parsons(14). In the final round, Klay Thompson would go on to win with 21 points, while hitting all 5 money balls. KD came a close 2nd with 20 points while Isaiah came 3rd with 18.
Sprite Dunk ContestUnlike the 3-point contest, the dunk contest wasn't filled with stars but instead included players capable of making the highlight reel while at the same time showing that they have the potential to be great stars in this league in the future. This years dunk contest had 4 players: Toronto's
Terrence Ross, Minnesota's
Zach LaVine and
Shabazz Muhammad, and also
Ben McLemore form Sacremento. Zach LaVine threw down the most memorable dunk but still ended up going 3rd with Terrence Ross dead last, Shabazz at second and finally the king of Sacramento took home the trophy coming at 1st.
Zach laVine dunked over 4 players. Although they were bent, it was a great dunk nonetheless.All-Star GameFinally on Sunday came the event that everyone was in town for, the All-Star game. The teams rosters goes as follows:
East:PG - Kyle Lowry
SG - Dwyane Wade
SF - LeBron James
PF - Greg Monroe
C - Andre Drummond
Reserves: J.Wall - J.Butler - C.Anthony - P.George - K.Love - K.Irving - D.Rose - T.Harris
West:PG - Steph Curry
SG - James Harden
SF - Kevin Durant
PF - Anthony Davis
C - Marc Gasol
Reserves: R.Westbrook - E.Bledose - R.Gay - D.Nowitzski - D.Howard - D.Lillard - G.Hayward - B.Griffin
The surprises that we had for the rosters were the Piston's frontcourt were starting in their first all-star game ever. Greg Monroe had averages of 18.7/11.5/3.4 while Andre Drummond was averaging 17.3/13.4 along with 2.2 blocks a game. Tobias Harris made his first all star game with averages of 15.3/8.7. The only surprises on the west was Rudy Gay who found new life in Sacremento with averages of 22.3/7.4/2.6 and Gordon Hayward averaging 21/6/5.
Just like every annual all-star game, this year also did not include any defense whatsoever with the West winning 131-122 while being led by all-star MVP James Harden who had 28 points. The east was led by Greg Monroe with 22. James Harden said after winning MVP of the game
This was great while it lasted but now I have to focus on the team and make sure we make a strong push for the playoffs. If I do that, the accolades will come by themselves.