Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Okay everyone! Breaking News! This will be the last time I say these things on the Pippen Aint Easy website for a long time. Number one, there was a lot of scoring in this game. Number two, there was absolutely no defense being played in this game. The Eastern Conference were not leastern on this night, winning 163-155 in what was the highest scoring game ever. The East scored the final ten points to put things away after being down 18 points. The combined 318 points topped the previous record of 303 back in 1987. This was basically a video game in which only one player did not score in this game. That player? Dirk Nowitzki. 0-2 from the field, 0-1 from three-point land. I love you Dirk but you might be getting clowned when you get back to Dallas. Just sayin.
The West was led by Kevin Durant (Duh!) and Blake Griffin each dropping 38 points. If the West would have won Blake was have taken the MVP easily shooting an absolutely ridiculous 19-23 from the floor. He kept the crowd electrified with his high-flying dunks. Kevin Durant sure shot a lot of threes going 6-17 for the game. You would think between these two going nuts, the West would have no problem. Their teammates did….scoring the ball. The next highest scorer was Kevin Love with 13. Chris Paul finished with 11 points and 13 assists while Stephen Curry had 12 points and 11 assists in his first All-Star game. I’m going to let him slide on the three-point competition, I guess. On a side note, did anyone see Dwight Howard’s rant before the game about centers getting back on the ballot? Can someone please tell the dude to stop whining? Look I agree the position needs to be put back on. But that wasn’t the reason he had that speech, he was mad that he wasn’t starting. Hey Dwight, here’s a thought. Shut up and play. Do what you are paid to do which is dominate and get the Houston Rockets to the NBA Finals and I guarantee you will start for the next five years. This is why the fans didn’t vote you in, they are tired of your act man!
The East was led by game MVP Kyrie Irving aka “Uncle Drew”. He went off for 31 points and 14 assists. Did I mention that he did it on the strength of 14-17 from the floor? This is good for Kyrie who has gone through a rough year in Cleveland. There were whispers that Irving may have plateaued as a player. Uh, no. The way he broke Dwight Howard’s ankle and laid the ball high off the glass for two was pretty to watch. Irving on the other hand, had a lot of help. Carmelo Anthony set his own record knocking down eight three-point shots on his way to 30 points. LeBron had 22 points seven rebounds and seven assists. this was a total team effort. The only player that didn’t shoot well was the guy no one thought should have been there in the first place Joe Johnson. He shot 2-7 on his way to five points.
Since this is a Chicago Bulls website, I would be remise if I didn’t talk about the Chicago representative in the game, Joakim Noah. He had a normal Noah game, eight points five rebounds and five assists in 21 minutes. Look, he was never going to win MVP of this game, but it is amazing that this guy can make a positive impact in a game with so much firepower. To hear Chris Paul comment on how Noah is all about winning on SportsCenter is what any player wants in this league, respect. We can all learn from this guy. There is a reason why he is Charles Barkley’s favorite player. He is what he is and he goes out and plays hard every night. It would have been easy for him to go out and jack up three pointers horsing around (like Dwight Howard who shot two threes but can’t hit free throws to save his life) but he didn’t he stayed within himself.
Well back to work Joakim! Toronto’s next on the agenda.