East Outlasts West In Double OT Thriller: 168-161Preview |
Box Score |
Recap15 Feb, 2009PHOENIX (AP) – The 2009 All-Star Game was a three point shootout, slam dunk contest, and late game heroics mixed into one. In a game for the ages, the Eastern Conference All-Stars outlasted their Western Conference counterparts in a double overtime affair, which saw the score see-saw and the lead change numerous times. Twice, the Western All-Stars found themselves in trouble but were dragged back into winning contention by two certain Lakers stars. On numerous occasions the West failed to take advantage of perfect game-winning opportunities.
And it was third time lucky for the East when they finally built a lead and held onto it in the second overtime period.
Gilbert Arenas was incredible in leading the charge for the East with a game high 42 points that included a bagging of 7 three pointers. After hoisting the All-Star MVP trophy he waved his arms up in the air and pointed to the stands. “I told everyone that I was going to win an MVP this season,” Arenas told reporters, “All-Star MVP means that I was the best of the best. Now it’s time to win the regular season MVP and then the Finals MVP. This is my year.”
Arenas received plenty of help from his team mates with
Lebron James adding 32 points from off the bench.
LA Lakers team mates
Kobe Bryant and
Pau Gasol were stars for the West. Bryant had a team high 36 points; 26 of them in the fourth quarter and two overtime periods. Gasol quietly racked up a close triple double of 21 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists; had the West won the game the Spaniard would have likely been named as MVP. Hometown hero
Steve Nash was brilliant in the first half with 17 of his 22 points but failed to find his stroke in the second half. He added 9 assists to his tally as
Chris Paul had a double double of 15 points and 11 assists.
The game began with a 14-4 run to the East before Nash’s entrance into the game saw him hit two straight triples. He continued with his hot shooting form with a long jumper and then another two from long range. The sudden scoring outburst saw the West jump to their first lead and they ended the first quarter on top at 40-36.
Both coaches; Byron Scott and Doc Rivers, had their teams playing an up-tempo style, encouraging plenty of three point attempts which also led to an electrifying display of dunks on the fast break. “This was one of the most fun All-Star games I’ve ever been involved in,” veteran forward
Kevin Garnett stated, “Coach let us run and gun and we got the whole building pumped up with that.” Garnett was terrific with a flurry of dunks as he tore his way up to 25 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks.
The West and East had a lackluster second quarter with both teams failing to score at the rate at which they were scoring at in the first quarter. The East got off to a run in the second quarter behind Heat guard
Dwyane Wade’s efforts before Paul and Gasol helped to bridge the gap. A Paul steal and triple knotted the scores up midway through the second. Both teams were neck and neck for the rest of the period.
The third quarter was the most entertaining in regards of the display of dunks. In particular, Wade and
Dwight Howard got into it the most with several big numbers that made Saturday’s Dunk contest look poor. “Dwight really threw down some big ones,” James said, “And Wade wasn’t bad either. Did you see that one over Gasol he had? He stretched pretty far.” The teams traded baskets and hit triple figures by the end of the quarter.
The game, though, really began in the final period as both teams emptied their benches for the start of the quarter in order to have their best players on the court for the final half of the last quarter.
Carmelo Anthony was the key player for the West in the fourth quarter, carrying the West with his hot shooting at the start of the quarter. The Nuggets star had 8 straight points to keep the West reserves in the match. The East relied on the three point shooting of Arenas to get ahead.
The East took a 6 point advantage with less than 3 minutes to go. Paul came to the rescue, hitting a three pointer from the top of the arc and then assisting
Tim Duncan on an easy bucket. After both teams missed easy shots, Paul turned the ball over at halfway.
Joe Johnson missed a three pointer and Gasol snatched the rebound with 1:01 remaining. That led to a huge Kobe Bryant slam with 52.1 remaining. With the West up by 1, Bryant caused a deflection on the inbounds but Arenas regained control of the ball. Arenas got the ball to James and the Cavs star was fouled on his way to the hoop. James missed both free throws allowing Bryant to set up his team mate Gasol for a hook shot over Howard. With 18.5 seconds left and the West up by 3, Arenas sank a dagger of a trey tying up the game.
The West called a time out and Scott took his star PG Paul out of the match and inserted Nash. “I wanted Nash to hit the three in front of his crowd,” Scott said, “It felt right.” Unfortunately, Nash was not shooting as well as he did at the start of the game and his shot with 3 seconds left in the game fell short. Duncan grabbed the rebound but did not have the time or balance to put up a shot.
The first overtime period started off with Wade dunking in traffic and then All-Star debutant
Kevin Durant returning the favor. Once again, the East would jump to a lead before Bryant was summoned back to the floor. With the East ahead by 7 points, Bryant was money for the West as he hit back to back jumpers and then a wide open three pointer to tie the game with a minute left. The crowd would lose control as Bryant stole the ball at halfway and threw the ball down hard on the fast break with 27.4 seconds remaining, putting the West up by 2. Wade would then hit a shot with 12 seconds remaining to tie the match once more and the West had a chance to win it. With plenty of time on the clock, Bryant received the ball on near the top of the arc. He tried to dribble around Lebron James and with time running out, shot a fade away. The shot was wide as the buzzer sounded and the game was sent into a second overtime.
The second overtime period did not see a comeback by the West.
Allen Iverson was the spark to the victory, as he scored three times in a row, his third bucket was a dunk on the fast break to put the East ahead by 10 with 3 minutes left. Bryant came on once more in an attempt to pull the West back. His three pointer and short jumper were enough to get the West as close as 5 with 1:33 remaining but it was the closest they would get for the rest of the game as MVP Arenas hit a trey to push the East back up to an 8 point advantage.
Notes:
Jose Calderon did not make an appearance due to sickness; he spent the night on the Eastern Conference bench but was back in the training room by halftime. He was back for the end of the game to see his team win… LeBron James was terrible from the charity stripe as he missed 10 freebies… Both teams combined for 92 assists; the West had 49 while the East had 43…
Stats At A Glance wrote:Quarter-by-Quarter Team ScoreEastern Conference All-Stars 31 – 31 – 39 – 26 – 41 –
168Western Conference All-Stars 40 – 26 – 31 – 30 – 34 –
161Jordan All-Star MVP
Gilbert Arenas
42 Points
9 Assists
2 Steals
17-27 FG
7-14 3PT
1-2 FTKey PerformersEastern ConferenceL James 32 pt, 7 ast, 14-20 FG, 3-6 3PT, 1-11 FT
D Wade 30 pt, 12-21 FG, 3-8 3PT, 3-4 FT
K Garnett 25 pt, 9 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl, 3 blk, 12-14 FG
D Howard 12 pt, 8 reb, 5 ast, 3 blk, 5-7 FG
J Johnson 12 pt, 5-11 FG, 2-6 3PT
A Iverson 7 pt, 8 ast, 3 stl, 3-7 FG
S Marion 5 pt, 5 reb, 2 stl, 2-4 FG
V Carter 3 pt, 1 ast, 1 blk
A Bogut 2 ast, 1 blk
Z Randolph 3 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk
J Calderon DNP -- Flu
Western ConferenceK Bryant 36 pt, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk, 15-27 FG, 2-7 3PT, 4-6 FT
S Nash 22 pt, 9 ast, 3 stl, 8-18 FG, 6-14 3PT
P Gasol 21 pt, 15 reb, 9 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk, 10-14 FG
C Paul 15 pt, 11 ast, 6-7 FG, 3-3 3PT
C Anthony 14 pt, 7-13 FG
T Duncan 13 pt, 10 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk, 6-7 FG
M Ginobili 11 pt, 4-8 FG
B Miller 8 pt, 7 reb, 4-7 FG
M Yao 8 pt, 3 ast
K Durant 6 pt, 3 ast, 2 blk
D Nowitzki 5 pt, 5 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk
J Kidd 2 pt, 1 ast
my apartment is quite big...at least 2000 sq ft, my frds all have huge tvs
whats gonna happen to Westbrook?
