A lot of dunking, 3pt shooting, no defence whatsoever and flashy plays. That’s what we usually see in the NBA All-Star games, but this year it was different. You probably think I’m lying or making it up right? Well, it’s because I am. This year NBA All-Stars match was not much different than any other before in terms of play, which I am not saying it’s a bad thing. At the end of the day, it’s an event for fans to enjoy, and players to make some highlight plays.
I am aware my description of the All-Stars game might seem like I believe the NBA All-Stars game is a “joke”, but that’s not exactly true. At least for the most part. To be fair, the game itself is still competitive… To some degree. At first, players just have some fun, but with each passing quarter, the game gets more serious, until the last quarter when the superstars start trying to win, but even then, it seems like they are all at 40%. That was exactly what happened on Saturday.
The game started off with a superb performance from Team Giannis, who got a double-digit lead by the end of the 1st quarter (37:53). In the 2nd quarter, they were nice enough to give for Team LeBron to score some points on their own which resulted in a 45:42 2nd quarter, however that still meant Team Giannis were ahead by 13 points (82:95).
The end of the 2nd quarter is when the “fun quarters” stop. I’ll call the first 2 quarters the “fun quarters” for two reasons. Firstly, because as mentioned the teams are not playing any defence and are seemingly only focused on making flashy plays for fans to talk about the next day, week or month and secondly because I can call them that. It’s my article.
As the teams stepped into the 3rd quarter, the NBA All-Stars game became slightly more serious and the true quality of LeBron team surfaced. Despite Team Giannis managing to get a 20 point lead a few minutes into the match, it all went downhill from there. Team LeBron outclassed their opponents and closed the gap of 20 points by the end of the quarter. LeBron and his team scored 50 points in the 3rd quarter alone, which is just 3 points shy of reaching the record of 53 points.
With the scoreboard showing 132:131 (a point lead for Team LeBron), we were in for an interesting and exciting 4th quarter, which would decide it all. The last quarter reminded me of back in the day when I and my friends were playing basketball. Of course, we were not as good, but we had one thing in common. We shot 3-pointers as frequently as we could. What I’m trying to say here is that we were watching a glorified 3pt contest, which the LeBron team was slowly winning. While Team Giannis started the last quarter well, getting a 6-point lead at the midway mark, but it was at around the 4th-minute mark when Team LeBron woke up. They managed to go on an impressive 20-5 run, which got them in an admirable 10-point lead with only 3 minutes to go. The match continued with some more impressive 3pointers, dunks and even defensive plays until the final whistle was blown. In the end, it was Team LeBron who finished 14 points in front of Team Giannis after an impressive comeback in the last 2 quarters.
To be fair it was an interesting match to watch. I even found myself saying “ou s**t” on several occasions while watching it, and I do believe it was a deserved response to the previously mentioned “flashy plays” and seemingly impossible shots that went in. In conclusion, we have seen some of the greatest players in the NBA showing off their talents and most importantly, we have seen Team LeBron winning the NBA All-Stars match for the 2nd year in a row.
While we are on the topic of LeBron James. As much as I would like to see LeBron James and the Lakers succeed this season, I don’t believe it will happen. As of now, they are fighting their way to get into playoffs, so even a playoffs spot is still a big question. In that regard, LeBron can be happy he won something this season; the NBA All-Stars match. Not only did he win it, but he won it with 14 points to spare, at least he can put in his impressive resume under the 2018/19 section.
For those of you who missed the match and want to see the “best parts” of it, here are the highlights of the NBA All-Stars match:
Leave a Reply