All-Star Game previews thrilling NBA finish

There
were timeouts called and coaches drew up plays. Refs whistled fouls,
and some of them were even committed intentionally. Players hustled back
on defense and boxed out for rebounds. There was trash talk and even a
little blood.

And after 45 minutes of unabashed bravado,
ball-hogging and highlight-reel dunks, the league’s top players locked
in, hunkered down and played together, showing a competitive spirit and
some truly thrilling basketball that had been absent over the game’s
first 3 1/2 quarters.

The East team whittled a 21-point lead down
to one in the second half, but Dwyane Wade’s last-second 3-pointer was
off the mark, and the West prevailed for the second straight year,
152-149.

“Being a competitor, no matter All-Star Game or not, you
don’t want to be blown out,” said LeBron James, who scored 23 of his 36
points in the second half and hit 6 of 8 on 3-point attempts. “I just
wanted to try to pick it up and see if we could make a run at it, and we
did.”

Extra
incentive for Kobe to take over? Maybe, but it didn’t happen. Wade even
committed another hard foul on Bryant with 16 seconds left in the game
and the West up by one, sending him to the line, where Bryant did
something very un-Kobe-like: He missed a free throw with the pressure
on.

Before he stepped to the line, Celtics forward Paul Pierce
offered a few words to his rival. “Just some friendly heckling, trying
to get into his head so he’d miss,” Pierce said with a wide grin.

But
the East couldn’t steal the win. Wade and James failed to connect on
one of their long pass plays, with Wade fumbling a sure go-ahead layup
out of bounds, and LeBron — still trying to shake the label of failing
to come through in the clutch — tried to find Wade again in the final
seconds but threw a pass right into Blake Griffin’s arms, effectively
sealing the game for the West.

“We just wanted to go out there and
get some dunks and throw lobs and shoot 3s or whatever and just have
fun. And then toward the end of the game we made the game competitive,”
said East center Dwight Howard, who had nine points and 10 boards. “We
got the lead down, and we should have gotten the win.”

But the
best part of a captivating end to All-Star Weekend is the fact that it
represents the promise of much better basketball ahead. The last few
minutes of Sunday’s game provided a fleeting diversion from the normal
NBA grind, but it’ll be nice to see the teams return to the court
Tuesday with something at stake.

The All-Star product has become
little more than a watered down publicity stunt, but when the players
actually are motivated — when their pride is on the line and a title is
at stake — the game can be utterly breathtaking.

As much fun as it
is to watch Pierce and Bryant jaw with each other during the All-Star
Game, it’s infinitely more entertaining to watch a classic
Celtics-Lakers showdown. A head-to-head duel between James and Durant is
always exciting, but it’ll be even more exhilarating if they’re doing
it in the NBA Finals in June.

Watching Carmelo Anthony work his
magic can be entrancing, but the bedlam he’ll incite when he returns to
the Madison Square Garden floor alongside new superstar Jeremy Lin is
what the NBA’s all about.

“I’m excited to get back,” said Anthony,
who had 19 points and nine boards. “I know how important tomorrow’s
practice is, I know how important Tuesdays practice is, just from the
standpoint of getting everybody together and getting everybody back
focused to make this second half run.”

Basketball fans have been
treated to a magical first half. The season that almost wasn’t has never
been short on excitement, even if it hasn’t always produced the most
refined basketball. A compressed schedule means more action more often,
and a 66-game docket underlines the importance of players leaving their
hearts on the floor every night.

There are endless storylines to
be played out over the next two months, and there are millions of eager
fans across the globe waiting to see what happens.

Will James
continue on his MVP tear, and will his Heat team finally get over the
hump and take home its first NBA title of the Big Three era?

Will
the Lakers, Spurs or Mavericks represent the Western Conference in the
Finals, or will the West’s old guard finally make way for a young
up-and-comer like Oklahoma City or the LA Clippers to take the reins?

What will become of Linsanity as the Knicks make their second-half push?

The
thrill of the NBA down the stretch, especially in the playoffs, is an
ecstasy that can’t be matched in even the most gripping of All-Star
Games — and certainly not in one like Sunday’s.

Sunday’s first
half was an AND-1 mix tape gone wrong, as the West shot 60.3 percent and
led 88-69 at the break. The West’s 88 first-half points set an All-Star
record, topping the previous high of 87 set by the West in 1989, and
the teams also combined to tie the record for points in a half. The
West’s 49-point second quarter was just one off a record set in 1970.

It’s
doubtful that Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau gave an impassioned
halftime speech to light a fire under his players, but in the second
half — particularly in the fourth quarter — a different East team took
the floor.

The shame is that fans who shell out big bucks to be
part of All-Star weekend can’t expect the kind of effort they saw in the
fourth quarter for a full 48 minutes. But effort won’t be an issue come
Tuesday. The All-Star break gave the players a chance to recharge, and
the next eight weeks will make this weekend’s lackluster All-Star events
a distant memory.

There are legacies on the line over the next
few months, and when rings and pride are at stake, no one has to remind
the players how important it is to play hard.