LeBron leads way as East stars outshine West
MVP adds nine assists, eight rebounds as team avenges last year's loss
 Eric Gay / AP East All-Star LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers dunks over West All-Star Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks during the fourth quarter of the NBA All-Star game. James was named the game's MVP as the East won 134-128. |
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NEW ORLEANS - Toss some leftover Mardi Gras beads toward the East. LeBron James and his crew earned them.
Outdunking, outpassing and outperforming their more trumpeted counterparts from the Western Conference, the Eastern Conference All-Stars avenged a year-old beating with a 134-128 win on Sunday night.
Ray Allen scored 28 points, making three straight 3-pointers in the final 3:15, and James added 27, including a did-he-really-do-that? dunk in the last minute to propel the East and earn MVP honors.
Last year, the West humiliated the East in a 153-132 rout in Las Vegas when Kobe Bryant and Co. rewrote the event’s record books. However, this time led by Allen’s 14 fourth-quarter points and James, the East salvaged some pride and can return to the season’s second half with bragging rights.
“They beat up on us pretty bad last year,” James said. “We didn’t want to allow that to happen. We wanted to win.”
James, who added nine assists and eight rebounds, was MVP for the second time in three years. He also won the honor in 2006, when the East beat the West in Houston.
Amare Stoudemire, Brandon Roy and Carmelo Anthony scored 18 points apiece to lead the West, which trailed by 13 entering the fourth quarter before rallying behind New Orleans’ own Chris Paul. The sensational guard’s seventh assist of the final period set up Roy’s layup to give the West a 122-119 lead.
But Boston’s Allen, the final player added to either roster, knocked down his second 3-pointer in 48 seconds to tie it before Paul answered with a 3, sending the hometown crowd into a frenzy.
Allen finally missed and James poked away the ball, and then came up with the night’s most stirring moment.
Slashing through the lane, Cleveland’s megastar rose and dunked over several West defenders, much like he did in Game 5 of last year’s Eastern Conference finals in Detroit when he scored the Cavaliers’ final 25 points
Paul was called for an offensive foul on the West’s next trip. Dwyane Wade hit a layup and Allen scored to make it 131-125. Roy’s 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds brought the West within three, but Allen made three free throws to close it out.
The weekend in New Orleans was about much more than spectacular dunks, a game featuring marginal defense or collecting strings of beads while strolling down boozy Bourbon Street. The NBA came to the Big Easy hoping to help this special city continue its comeback from Hurricane Katrina, the effects of which are still being felt 2½ years since she blasted through.
On Friday, the world’s biggest basketball names as well as hundreds of volunteers fanned out to all sides of the city to help refurbish playgrounds, paint houses and lend a hand with whatever they could on a day devoted to community service.
Many of the players were moved by the experience and came away with a greater sense of what the area has gone through and the monumental work that lies ahead in the Gulf Coast Region.
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“Well, I hope not just me, but every All-Star from the East and West was able to put smiles on kids and on families faces,” James said. “I think we all know what happened, the devastation down here and to bring the NBA All-Star game here I think it really uplifted the families down here. We had a great time.”
Bryant, who won MVP honors last year, played less than 3 minutes so he could rest his injured pinkie. The 10-time All-Star dislocated his finger earlier this month and doctors have advised him to have surgery.
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