OHIO – Stephen Curry went berzerk from downtown as Team LeBron pulled off a 163-160 victory over Team Durant in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night (Monday in the Philippines) at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
The Golden State Warriors’ gunner converted NBA All-Star recorf 16 three-pointers, with almost half from way beyond the arc, to finish with 50 points and be hailed as the Kobe Bryant NBA All-Star Finals MVP.
Giannis Antetokounmpo added 30 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and three steals, while team captain LeBron James had 24 points, including the game-sealing turnaround basket.
Cleveland Cavaliers’ Jarret Allen and Darius Garland also made their presence felt with the former tallying 10 points and nine rebounds and the latter chipping in 13 points.
Curry was on fire in the first two quarters, where he unloaded eight triples with three four coming from around 30 feet out, but Team LeBron were down 86-80 at the half.
The two-time NBA MVP continued his torrid outside shooting in the third quarter as he unloaded five consecutive triples to pull the Team LeBron to within 118-119.
Team Durant pulled away anew at 130-123 midway in the quarter but two more triples from Curry followed by a layup by Luka Doncic allowed Team LeBron to claw to within 138-139.
Curry added five more points to start the fourth quarter as Team LeBron finally took a 149-145 advantage. Team Durant then leaned on Joel Embiid and LaMelo Ball to snatch the lead back at 155-153.
Team LeBron got the lead back at 157-155 on back-to-back layups by Antetokounmpo followed by two straight hits from James and DeMar DeRozan to move closer to the target score of 163 points.
Team Durant made its last push on five straight points by Zach LaVine to cut the deficit to 160-161 but a turnaround shot by James gave Team LeBron the winning basket.
Embiid finished with double-double 36 points and 10 rebounds, Booker added 20 markers, while Ball and Dejounte Murray had 18 and 17 markers, respectively, for Team Durant.
BOX SCORE:
TEAM LEBRON 163 — Curry 50, Antetokounmpo 30, James 24, Garland 13, DeRozan 10, Jokić 10, Allen 10, Doncic 8, VanVleet 6, Butler 2, Paul 0.
TEAM DURANT 160 — Embiid 36, Booker 20, Ball 18, Murray 17, Young 13, LaVine 12, Wiggins 10, Towns 9, Tatum 8, Morant 6, Gobert 6, Middleton 5.
Quarterscores: 47-45, 46-49, 45-45, 163-160./PN
