The 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend included various surprises this past weekend.
The East defeated the West 163-155 for the first time since 2010, thanks to Cleveland Cavalier Kyrie Irving.
Irving has now won an All-Star MVP, three-point shoot out and rookie challenge in his three years in the league.
The All-Star game also featured New York Nicks’ Carmelo Anthony scoring 30 points and setting the 3-point record by scoring eight 3-point shots.
Other notable statistics were Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant who each scored 38 points.
The All-Star game festivities started Friday night when Arne Duncan won the celebrity All-Star game MVP while recording 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Next was the NBA Rising Stars Challenge, where Detroit Pistons’ Andre Drummond finished with 30 points, 25 rebounds and a MVP. Drummond broke DeJuan Blair’s rebounding mark of 23, which was set in 2010.
Team Bosh won the Shooting Stars contest for the second consecutive year.
Bosh scored two half-court shots, leading his squad to victory. The three-point contest winner was San Antonio Spurs’ Marco Bellinelli.
The Italian sharp shooter earned 24 points in the final round to defeat Washington Wizard Bradley Beal who had a score of 18 of his own.
The Slam Dunk Contest was a bit of a let down, as they used a different format in this years All-Star layout.
Instead of each player dunking and going against each other, each conference began with a 90 second freestyle round. All three participants of each conference would pass or bounce it to each other and dunk it. Needless to say, it was not very exciting.
After the freestyle round, participants of their conference would face off against the other conference. This made the dunk contest three East players vs. three West players. However, since all three East players defeated the West players, the dunk competition was over after just six dunks. John Wall found himself champion when he jumped over his team’s mascot while double clutching a reverse dunk.
While the All-Star Weekend had some disappointment to it, there were also some pleasant surprises. First was when Irving won the MVP award at age 21, scoring 31 points and 14 assists on 14-17 shooting, and Melo who broke the three-point scoring record.
