Kobe, the King of Los Angeles! Griffin, the Prince of Los Angeles!
Today, the 2011 All-Star Game is held in Los Angeles, and the match is incredibly exciting! In the Rookie Challenge on February 19th, the first-year team defeated the second-year team 148-140. The total score of both teams set a record high. Rookie John Wall from the Wizards scored an astonishing 22 assists along with 12 points, undoubtedly becoming the MVP. The historical record between the first-year and second-year teams became 4 wins and 8 losses for the first-year team, achieving a two-game winning streak against the second-year team. The Rookie Challenge began adopting the format of first-year players versus second-year players starting in 2000. The No. 1 pick from the 2009 draft, Blake Griffin, sat out for a year due to injury and participated in the first-year team this time, joining forces with the No. 1 pick from the 2010 draft, John Wall. Last season's Rookie of the Year, Tyreke Evans, was absent due to injury, further weakening the strength of the second-year team. Despite Los Angeles being Griffin's home court, with fans constantly shouting his name, this No. 1 pick did not put forth much effort, only scoring 14 points. This year's All-Star Weekend became Griffin's "triathlon," as he also participated in the Slam Dunk Contest and the All-Star main event.
On February 20th, the NBA entered the second day of the 2011 All-Star Weekend, hosting various small-group and individual skill competitions. In the Shooting Stars Competition, which started in 2004 and kicked off this year's events, the Atlanta team ultimately completed the final round in 1 minute and 10 seconds, defeating last year's champion Texas United Team to win this year's competition title.
The four teams participating in the Shooting Stars Competition were the Texas United Team (Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks; Kenny Smith, San Antonio Silver Stars; Veronica Hodges, Houston Rockets (retired)), the Los Angeles Team (Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers; Rick Fox, Los Angeles Sparks; Tim Thompson, Los Angeles Lakers (retired)), the Atlanta Team (Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks; Steve Smith, Atlanta Hawks (retired); Kiesha Brown, Atlanta Dream), and the Chicago Team (Taj Gibson, Chicago Bulls; Steve Kerr, Chicago Bulls (retired); Katie Douglas, Chicago Sky). The Texas United Team was last year's defending champion, while Los Angeles had participated in seven editions of the Shooting Stars Competition, only missing the 2006 edition.
In the Skills Challenge, the three major favorites Paul, Rose, and rookie Wall were all eliminated in the preliminary rounds. In the end, rookie Stephen Curry won with a time of 28.2 seconds, successfully claiming the championship. He thus became the seventh player to win the Skills Challenge after Kidd, Davis, Deron Williams, Rose, Wade, and Nash.
This Skills Challenge featured five participants: besides Paul who was selected by the league, Westbrook and Rose were both participating in the Skills Challenge for the second time, with Curry and Wall being new faces. In the preliminary round, Curry was the first to appear, taking 34.1 seconds; Westbrook followed, taking 30 seconds. Then came the rookie who just dished out 22 assists in the Rookie Challenge, John Wall. However, it seemed that the No. 1 pick was too eager, making mistakes in shooting and passing, eventually finishing with a time of 39.3 seconds. The fourth to appear was the champion from two years ago, Rose, but his time reached 35 seconds. The last to appear was Paul, who encountered problems right at the start, even missing a layup, causing laughter among the audience. In the end, Paul took 43 seconds to finish, placing last. Ultimately, Curry and Westbrook advanced to the finals. With Curry and Westbrook entering the finals, it meant that the Skills Challenge would crown a new champion. Curry went first. His speed was very fast, completing almost everything in one attempt without any mistakes, ultimately finishing all tasks in just 28.2 seconds. Westbrook followed, but his speed was clearly slower than Curry's, encountering issues in the passing and mid-range shooting sections, taking a total of 44.2 seconds. In the end, Curry went first and smoothly took first place!
After the Shooting Stars Competition and the Skills Challenge, the Three-Point Contest also began. In the end, Pierce excelled and defeated Curry and Billups in the final to become the new Three-Point Champion.
This year's Shooting Stars Competition featured six players, including last year's defending champion Daequan Cook, as well as other competitors such as Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics), Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets), Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Channing Frye (Phoenix Suns), and Danilo Gallinari (New York Knicks).
In the preliminary round, Curry, Pierce, and Billups advanced, while the defending champion Cook, Gallinari, and Frye were eliminated. In the finals, Pierce went first. "Truth" hit the color balls in the first two shooting spots, having great luck and carrying a 13-point advantage into the last two shooting spots. Afterwards, Pierce's state did not diminish but increased, hitting all the color balls in this round, truly deserving the title of a game-type player, ultimately scoring 20 points. The second to appear was Billups, whose initial shooting rate was too fast and unable to guarantee hitting the color balls, suffering some losses until reaching the left 45-degree angle when Billups gradually found his rhythm, but it was already too late. In the end, Billups scored 14 points, losing hope of winning the championship. The last to shoot was rookie Curry from the Warriors. After scoring 10 points in the first three shooting spots, Curry lost confidence in the last two shooting spots, ultimately scoring 17 points. Thus, the champion was decided, and Pierce became this year's Three-Point Champion. After winning the three-point title, Pierce excitedly ran forward to chest-bump Garnett sitting courtside.
As the most anticipated competitive project, the Slam Dunk Contest was also the grand finale of this year's All-Star events. The four contestants in the dunk contest were Blake Griffin from the Clippers, JaVale McGee from the Wizards, DeMar DeRozan from the Raptors (replacing injured Brandon Jennings from the Bucks), and Serge Ibaka from the Thunder. After fierce competition, Griffin ultimately defeated McGee to win the 2011 Slam Dunk Contest championship.
First up was DeRozan, who announced his dunk move "EAST BAY FUNK DUNK" (a counterclockwise turning dunk). However, DeRozan, appearing first, seemed nervous and had an unsuccessful start, failing twice before finally managing a cross-body dunk with a pass from his teammate, barely scoring 44 points. The second contestant was Ibaka from the Thunder, whose entrance was creative like an Olympic opening ceremony with beauties behind him waving flags. It turned out that Ibaka was not just a pretty face. He directly grabbed the ball and completed a gliding dunk from the free-throw line, stunning everyone, scoring 45 points for this dunk. The third contestant was Yi Jianlian's teammate, the "spring man" McGee. He held two balls in each hand, attempting to simultaneously dunk two balls into two hoops, a never-before-seen idea challenging human limits. After several failures, McGee finally managed to dunk the balls. Holding two balls, he threw the ball in his right hand to the left hoop and then dunked it into the right hoop after rebounding from the backboard, while simultaneously dunking the ball in his left hand into the left hoop, completing this "double-sound dunk" which immediately amazed the entire audience, earning a perfect score of 50 points. McGee became the 22nd player to score a perfect score in the dunk contest. The last to appear was Griffin. Griffin attempted a restricted-level move straight out of a video game, completing a 540-degree spin dunk, but unfortunately, this move failed twice, with Griffin himself getting dizzy during the second attempt, not even touching the rim and spinning directly onto the backboard. Due to the lack of time remaining, Griffin reduced the difficulty of the dunk, completing a 360-degree spin dunk and scoring 49 points.
The second round of the preliminaries followed. The first to appear was DeRozan, who completed an impressive single-handed reverse dunk after bouncing the ball off the backboard, again receiving a perfect score of 50 points. Regardless of quality or difficulty, this dunk was indeed top-notch. Ibaka's second dunk was highly creative, akin to a situational drama. A little child begged Ibaka to fetch the plush toy bear hanging on the hoop, and Ibaka simultaneously fetched the "bear" with his mouth while completing the dunk, although highly creative, this dunk wasn't too difficult, so it only received 45 points. The third to appear was Griffin, who ranked second in the first round of the preliminaries. For this dunk, he chose to cooperate with his teammate Baron Davis, who tapped the ball off the backboard, allowing Griffin to complete a 360-degree windmill dunk after catching the ball, but due to the high difficulty, this dunk attempt failed multiple times. In the end, Griffin was forced to reduce the difficulty, completing a windmill dunk with the ball bouncing off the side of the backboard, scoring 46 points. The last to appear was McGee, who specially invited his mom to be a supporting character. After McGee's mom kissed the five referees one by one, McGee chose to consecutively dunk three balls, holding two regular balls himself while his teammate John Wall held the colored ball. In the end, after several attempts, this was finally completed, with Griffin (95 points) and McGee (99 points) advancing to the finals together.
In the finals, Griffin appeared first, choosing once again to use pure physicality to captivate the fans. Griffin's first dunk in the finals was throwing the ball off the backboard and then completing a one-handed arm hang after catching the rebound ball. This dunk was very impressive, but it seemed to have a hint of imitation of Vince Carter's arm hang in 2000, not producing a shocking effect. McGee's first move was also highly challenging, holding the ball and rushing towards the backboard, bending his body and dunking the ball while still behind the backboard, a highly challenging feat for a 7-foot tall player. McGee had a dodging motion with his head in the air before finally dunking the ball, prompting even the sideline coach Webber to excitedly shout.
Griffin finally brought out his ultimate move, using props and accompanied by a gospel choir. His creative idea was leaping over a car, with Byron Davis cooperating inside the car, slightly poking his head out from the roof of the car. After Griffin's running start, Davis tossed the ball, and Griffin directly jumped, caught the ball, and completed a soaring double-hand dunk while leaping over the car, triggering a sensational reaction. McGee's second dunk in the finals challenged the limits of human jumping ability. After completing his first spin dunk, McGee felt unsatisfied, and his second dunk was self-tossing and self-dunking, flying high and slamming the ball into the hoop, despite the impressive leap height, the creativity of the dunk was relatively mundane. In the end, the dunk contest entered the "They Dunk. You Decide" (they dunk, you decide) segment, where in the fan voting segment, the more popular Griffin edged out McGee with 68% of the votes, winning the 2011 Slam Dunk Contest championship.
On February 21st, the 2011 Los Angeles All-Star Weekend entered its final day, and the much-anticipated All-Star main game was played as scheduled. In the end, the Western Conference All-Stars defeated the Eastern Conference All-Stars 148-143. As the focal star of this All-Star game, Kobe gave a full performance from the beginning, ultimately scoring 37 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals, successfully winning the MVP award at home.
James recorded a silky-smooth triple-double, Amare Stoudemire scored 29 points through dunks and drives, but these could not overshadow Kobe, the host of this All-Star game. With 37 points and 14 rebounds, Kobe delivered a performance filled with control and flexibility. During the game, both teams defended tightly, had strong scoring desires, and clearly showed goals to win. Many times, beautiful dunks were denied by ruthless fouls, and scenes of players complaining to referees frequently occurred. Trailing by 17 points in the first three quarters, the East team once narrowed the gap to 2 points, nearly staging a comeback. East coach Doc Rivers called multiple timeouts to arrange tactics, handling it like a regular-season or even playoff approach. Wade injured his knee during the game, and after examination by medical staff, they advised him not to return to the game. Compared to previous All-Star games, this year's game had less entertainment and more intense competition. Winning seemed to be the main theme of this year's game...
Kobe set the "serious" tone from the start of the game. On the left baseline, he faced off against Wade in a one-on-one situation, engaging in continuous aggressive attacks. After several exchanges, Kobe spun and banked the shot in. At the 8:51 mark of the first quarter, Kobe broke through the defender on the right baseline, performed a reverse layup in mid-air, and slammed it down. Not long after, Kobe forcefully pulled up for a three-pointer against Wade from the right 45-degree angle and sank it. In his "home" game, Kobe was going for the MVP, and he played very seriously. This attitude also influenced his teammates, allowing the West team to control the situation. Not only did Kobe excel offensively, but he also played fiercely on defense. He first stole a pass from Wade, and the West team launched an offensive play, ultimately resulting in Durant scoring. Just over a minute later, Kobe stole another pass from Wade, this time choosing to shoot a three-pointer himself, but missed. Under Kobe's influence, the game was indeed played methodically, transforming from an "entertainment-heavy show" to a "competition-heavy real battle." There was also intense physical contact in the paint in the first half, with both teams getting 10 free-throw opportunities, something rarely seen in All-Star games. In the second half, the Kobe storm swept in again. After Duncan intercepted James and directly passed the ball to Bryant, Kobe unhesitatingly rushed to the basket, completing a powerful two-handed dunk over James' block attempt. From the slow-motion replay, it was clear that Kobe was playing for real, but LeBron, feeling humiliated, also defended for real. James powerfully chased under the basket, trying to give Kobe a big block to regain some dignity. He touched the ball, but still ended up as the "background" for Bryant's successful dunk. After completing this play, Kobe looked quite pleased, patting James on the butt while retreating, showing how serious the superstars really were. Not playing seriously can lead to humiliation, and Wade paid the price of injury for playing hard. At the 5:03 mark of the quarter, Wade wanted to attack on offense but encountered Delon's jump block. Seeing this, Wade, in mid-air, hastily chose a behind-the-back pass, but this pass was intercepted. After receiving the ball in the frontcourt, Kobe chose a gliding one-handed dunk, while Wade in the backcourt shook his head and limped off the court. At this point, this All-Star game had become Kobe's personal show, with everyone else seemingly becoming his practice partners. Kobe reviewed post-game saying, "I wanted to play hard. I think we have a responsibility to take things seriously because we were selected by fan votes. Our performances for most of the season have been recognized by fans, and they sent us here. They want to see great games. They want to see us compete, and that's what I tried to do and emphasized to my teammates." When asked if he took the game seriously, James said after the game, "Since you're here and get the chance to play, the referee starts blowing the whistle, you start wanting to score, someone actively defends you, the competitive atmosphere naturally comes, and you want to win the game." When evaluating his triple-double performance, James said, "During the game, I tried to showcase my abilities on both ends of the court. I competed for rebounds, actively defended, and tried to score, doing my best to lead our team to victory. Although I didn't succeed (winning), my focus was entirely on winning, so I'm a bit disappointed about the game, disappointed about not winning. What makes me happy is that the All-Star weekend was successful." For Thunder forward Kevin Durant, who scored the second-highest points in the game, the highlight of the All-Star weekend was the victory. He openly expressed his care for the outcome after the game: "(For me) the climax of the All-Star weekend was the West team winning the game. I am the starter of the Western Conference, and as a competitive player, I enjoyed the intense and exciting fourth quarter, so I think this (winning through intense competition) was the biggest fun." During the game, the audience also became supervisors of the game. Once teammates relaxed a bit, the audience below would shout "Play harder!" After the game, Popovich, the coach of the West team, summarized the mainstream mindset of the All-Star game: "We all got into the atmosphere of the game, and in the final stages, Doc and I each called a timeout. We all wanted to win the game, and at that moment, the players also wanted to win because they are competitive players. When the score was close, you naturally stepped into your role, and both Doc and I agreed that the assistant coaches wanted to win the game more."
This is this year's All-Star game! How wonderful! I hope next year's All-Star weekend will be even more exciting!