Greek power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo , of the Milwaukee Bucks, lived up to his status as the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and, in just 19 minutes, contributed 35 points, seven rebounds, three assists, a ball recovery and a cap as the leader of Team LeBron, who beat Team Kevin Durant 170-150 in the 70th edition of the All-Star Game.
Along with Antetokoumpo, who won the MVP award of the event, Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry, who had won the Triples Contest for the second time before the game, was also decisive in the victory by achieving 28 points and four assists, being the team leader.
While the reserves, point guard Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers and Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics showed their scoring inspiration by contributing 32 and 22 points, respectively, for Team LeBron, who had the forward as captain. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
Although James only played 13 minutes and contributed four points with four assists, the dominance of his team, led by coach Quin Snyder of the Utah Jazz, was permanent and they managed to win three of the four periods, including the second when they scored 60 points .
The victory allowed James to go perfect 5-0 in the All-Star Games in which he has captained the team.
Team LeBron takes the All-Star Game
While veteran point guard Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns was in charge of directing Team LeBron’s attack by delivering 16 assists with eight rebounds and six points.
Slovenian point guard Luka Doncic, of the Dallas Mavericks, became the player who spent the longest time on the court at the State Farm Arena, in Atlanta, where the game was played, without spectators.
The former Real Madrid player contributed eight points after scoring 3 of 7 shots from the field, including two 3-pointers from six attempts, grabbed three defensive rebounds and dished out eight assists.
With a soporific game of permanent basket exchange, without any defense, or strategy and much less intensity in team basketball, the individual contributions were what made the final difference.
Team Durant, of Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant, who was out due to injury, and was led by coach Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia Sixers, had as their best scorer Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards , by scoring 26 points, including six triples from 12 attempts.
Together with Beal, the league’s leading scorer, Nets point guard Kyrie Irving was in charge of being Team Durant’s second leading scorer and led the attack with a double-double of 24 points, 12 assists, five rebounds and two recoveries of ball.
His teammate, guard James Harden, and power forward Jayson Tatum, of the Celtics, finished the game with 21 points each, which only allowed them to reach 24 points first, in honor of the number he dressed in his shirt the late Kobe Brant, in the fourth period that ended the game, which left a new change of leader on the scoreboard and five draws.
Without any sports interest, the real winners of the game were the historic black colleges and universities (HBCU).
The LeBron team represented the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Durant team played for the United Negro College Fund. Both funds are non-profit organizations seeking to award scholarships and support HBCUs.
The league generated $ 3 million in donations for HBCU and made sure every element of the event was geared toward promoting schools, according to the NBA.
Thanks to their victory, Team LeBron raised $ 1.25 million for the Thurgood Marshall Fund . The Durant team also raised 500,000 for The United Negro College Fund.