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2021 NBA All-Star Game: Giannis MVP, Dame hits game winner as Team LeBron wins again

erik garcía gundersen
·2 min read

When it comes to picking the best team among the 24 best players in the NBA, LeBron James is undefeated. He added to his perfect record as an All-Star captain on Sunday night in dominant fashion as Team LeBron dominated a Team Durant missing Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid, 170-150.

Team LeBron wasted no opportunity on Sunday, winning the first three quarters of Sunday’s game before reaching the target score in the 4th quarter thanks to a near half-court 3-point shot from Damian Lillard. Giannis Antetokounmpo was the game’s MVP, scoring 35 points and going 16-for-16 from the field, setting a new All-Star Game record for the most attempts without a miss.

Lillard, who was also a contender for MVP, had 32 points and Steph Curry had 28 points. Both players had a great time extending their range from the 3-point line and LeBron was part of the group pushing the two to extend their range.

Team LeBron is now 4-0 since the NBA eliminated the traditional conference format in 2018.

Could this be how we always do All-Star?

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

While I know this will likely never happen, the NBA made a case for themselves to do All-Star Weekend as a one night event in the future. Having the 3-point shootout and skills competition leading into the game, having it be in a tight window where fans don't have to tune in on multiple nights all seems like a nice tidy way to do All-Star moving forward. All-Star Saturday is one of my favorite traditions, but with how hard players play during the season and the drawn out feeling when the events just happen as individual events not connected to the game, tonight made me feel like less is more. The excitement about the dunk contest at halftime, with all of the superstars there enjoying the moment in their All-Star uniforms, it brings back the memories of basketball camps or AAU tournaments. It was the type of campy stuff we don't get enough of on the typical All-Star Saturday night. And if you had fans there for a one night event, almost like a UFC fight night, you could turn Sunday night into something closer to what the NBA wants as a major moment on the sports calendar. At least for the casual fan.

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