No game brings together as much talent in the world of basketball as the NBA All Star. Offensive talent, mainly. Furthermore, it is almost an exhibition match, with a festive spirit, the best scorers in the world attack almost without opposition. This Sunday (early morning on Monday in Spain), the players from the Eastern Conference have defeated those from the West with a bombardment of 211 points, an All Star record, which has included 42 triples by the winners. With a result of 211-186, the match is also the one with the highest total score of all those played: 397 points.
The game saw baskets of all kinds, but 67 shots were made from the three-point line (that’s saying something, since it was even shot from the middle of the court). The most inspired by that bombardment from the three-point line were the players from the East, among them the three starters who wore the same number on their shirt, 0: Damian Lillard (Milwaukee Bucks), Tyrese Halliburton (Indiana Pacers) and Jayson Tatum (Bostion Celtics). Jaylen Brown (Celtics) also stood out, scoring 36 points.
Lillard, with 39 points and 11 of 23 in triples, has won the award for best player of the game and a loud boo from the public, who were betting on the local Halliburton, with 32 points, but greater efficiency (10 of 14) in triples , and a series of five triples in a minute and a half in the first quarter that unbalanced the game. It is true that Lillard’s high score and several triples from the middle of the field made it very difficult for the jury not to give him the award.
The top scorer of the game, however, was Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves), from the West, with 50 points in just 28 minutes of play. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has also stood out on his team, with 31 points, while Stephen Curry has left drops of his talent and LeBron James of his incombustible power. The one who did not look very comfortable in this format in which it is not played seriously is Nikola Jokić, more gifted for efficiency than for spectacle, although he has left a fun counterattack in a tuya-mina with Luka Dončić. The Slovenian, with 7 points, has not had his night either.
In recent years, the All-Star Game had become a party that no one took very seriously, with very long interruptions and without the feeling of watching a real game. The players found out which team they were playing for shortly before starting the game. The NBA has decided to return to the origins and face the best of the Eastern and Western Conferences. Even so, it is obviously not an official competitive game, so the game, at times very spectacular, is far from what a real NBA game is.
The biggest difference is in defense. Nobody earns a ticket to the All-Star Game because of how well they defend. Defending is sacrificial and ungrateful. In a game like the All Star, which is an aggregation of individuals rather than a team competition, in many plays the players barely pretended to be defending. In the attack, meanwhile, the search for spectacle predominates, with dunks, alley-oops and those three-pointers from the middle of the court, sometimes disregarding easy but unworthy baskets.
There has been no shortage of spectacle in Indiana. No one had ever seen NBA players score so many points in a single game. Neither in the official competition, where the records are lower, nor in the All Star, where the record for the game with the most points was 374 in 2017 and the record for the team with the highest score, 196 in 2016. The 42 triples of the East pulverize the mark of 35 set by Team LeBron in 2019. The teams scored 193 points in the first half, also breaking the record for any half, set last year at 191 points. East broke a record in any half by scoring 107 in the second half.
The NBA wanted a more competitive matchup, after the loss of audience for the All Stars in recent years. He has returned to the East versus West format and has even considered having a game one day between Americans and foreigners, in order to add some spice and seat more people in front of the television. But what there has not been is emotion for the result. The game quickly became unbalanced and no one on the field seemed to care too much. At least, not enough to bother defending.
The all-star game was preceded by the dunk and triple-point contests, in which the winner was repeated. Mac McClung, who was already a sensation in 2024, took the trophy after flying over Shaquille O’Neal in a last attempt that received 50 points out of a possible 50. Damian Lillard won the three-point contest, but the subsequent duel between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu made it clear that the true king of three-pointers is the Golden State Warriors player.