NBA All-Star Game: the Eastern selection crushes the West 211 to 186 at the end of boredom

LeBron James a fêté sa 20e sélection pour sa 21e saison en NBA, un record à 39 ans. XinHua – Xu Jing

La sélection de la conférence Est a dominé les stars de l'Ouest 211 à 186, pour un record de points, lors d'un All-Star Game NBA particulièrement plat disputé ce dimanche 18 février à Indianapolis.

The all-star game, without any real stakes, is a show that highlights the best players in the league since 1951. The lack of intensity of the meeting is a habit, even if it is sometimes contradicted by a small increase in pressure at the end of the match. But not this time.

The NBA will thus have missed its bet to energize the event by returning to the historic East versus West format, after six years where two captains formed their team.

Some players had difficulty masking their disinterest in the match, played while walking. The stars of the league thus increased the number of long shots (67 successful out of 168 attempted in total) and dunks without opposition.

Milwaukee Bucks leader Damian Lillard (39 points, 6 assists), author of two successful shots from the middle of the field in particular, was elected MVP of the match, "an honor".

Dame Dolla snags his first #NBAAllStar Game MVP! ⌚️ pic.twitter.com/R0QIrVQTqO

— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 19, 2024

All under the whistles of the public, who were hoping for local hero Tyrese Haliburton (32 points), another stone in the NBA's garden.

Minnesota Timberwolves interior Karl-Anthony Towns finished as the game's top scorer with 50 points. The game allowed LeBron James to celebrate his 20th All-Star Game selection, a record at age 39 for his 21st NBA season.

Victor Wembanyama missed his young talents tournament

The All-Star Weekend as a whole was quite laborious. French prodigy Victor Wembanyama, selected for the young talents tournament, suffered a small humiliation by being eliminated with his team by a group of G-League players (development championship) on Friday. All of which made him miss the finale of the event where everyone wanted to see him.

Saturday, the day of competitions began with the very poorly designed "Skills challenge", before being saved by the trigger duel between Stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu, then by the leaping Mac McClung during the dunk contest.