Team Lebron goes head to head with team Durant for the 71st All-Star Game

We all have our favorite sports teams. We follow them through the season and track statistics and records as they make their journey to and from games. There are times when statistics, records and grudges get put aside and all that matters is fun. One of those times happens to be the NBA All-Star Game. This is when all the players you watched the entire season come together and are all under the same roof. This always brings the most anticipation for the audience to see what will unfold in the foreseeable future of the night.

This year’s captains of the All-Star Game are Lebron James and Kevin Durant. Lebron’s team mainly included veterans like Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić and injured James Harden. Though Durant wasn’t there to play because of injury, he still chose to go with a younger and less experienced team. His team included LaMelo Ball, Trae Young, Jayson Tatum, and Joel Embiid.

This legendary appearance of NBA players kicked off with Andrew Wiggins winning the tip-off over veteran Jokić for Team Durant. The first quarter started off slow with just trading 3-pointers back and forth. Then, Lebron started getting nice and traded some of his starters off and put in some of his reserves. This made it interesting because some of the players had very good chemistry because they play for the same team. This was only the case for Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland, both for the Cleveland Cavaliers. On the other hand, Wiggins and Curry both play for the Golden State Warriors, and that night they were playing against each other. 

Curry scored an all-high of fifty points, two assists and five rebounds. This was the most points that he has ever scored in any game before. This was only two points behind the record that Lakers player Anthony Davis held for the All-Star Game. Curry also received the MVP for that game. This was due to the fact that James only had 24 points and eight assists. 

Team James was behind in points at the beginning of the 4th quarter. James’ team was able to pull a couple tricks with Curry to get back into the game. They had constant 3-pointers and had their center Allen from Cleveland always around the hoop to secure the points each drive. This led to a consistent 3-4 point differential between the two teams. 

Unlike normal basketball, the All-Star Game ends when one team gets their score to 163. This goal was slowly achieved, but it was only done in NBA style. What I am referring to is the closeness of NBA games. The final score was 160-163, with favor going to Team Lebron. The final points were scored by the captain himself, Lebron James.

By Gabriel Sanders