NBA ALL STAR 2013, February (15-17)
Houston, Toyota Center
DVD Lengkap 2013 NBA ALL STAR:
- 2013 BBVA Rising Stars (1 dvd)
- 2013 NBA ALL STAR Saturday Night (1 dvd)
- 2013 NBA ALL STAR Game (2 dvd)
Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets wins the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge MVP
HOUSTON -- How Denver's Kenneth Faried was able to sneak into a Cavaliers practice Friday night was not immediately clear. It was even more of a curiosity considering the supersized levels of security at Toyota Center. But, there he was, in a Nuggets uniform and everything.
"That was much easier than a Cavs practice," Rising Star and Cavalier Tyler Zeller corrected after adding four points and four rebounds in 16 minutes in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge. "We didn't play a lot of defense. We would have been running a lot of lines."
Faried crashed the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge all right, winning the game's MVP Award. He did it with dunks, and not only in the final 90 seconds or so, when both sides stopped playing defense and mostly stood and watched one player taxi down the runway on either side of basket and audition for a future dunk contest. That is to say, when they stopped playing defense more than they had the rest of the game.
Faried crashed the rim and the boards, too, piling up 40 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes for the winning side as Team Chuck (Barkley) beat Team Shaq (O'Neal) 163-135 in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge of first- and second-year players.
Faried was the MVP, but the Cavaliers were the majority.
Four key members of the rotation in Cleveland were on the court in Houston: Tristan Thompson for Team Chuck and Kyrie Irving, Tyler Zeller and Dion Waiters for Team Shaq. Irving, a reserve for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game on Sunday, had 32 points, six assists, five rebounds and a back-and-forth, ankle-breaking showdown for several possessions in a row with Detroit's Brandon Knight of Team Chuck. As for the rest of the Cavs, all Waiters did was go 11-for-12 en route to 23 points in 19 minutes, while Thompson was 9-for-10 from the field with 20 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes.
But how about the defense? Didn't Team Shaq play some defense? Or any defense?
"Not in the first half," Zeller said.
Team Chuck had 90 points by then while shooting 66.1 percent. At the break, Faried had 19 points and Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings added 14 while going 4-for-4 from behind the arc. After the defense really clamped down in the second half, the Chucks finished the game at 63.9 percent.
Irving wins Foot Locker Three-Point Contest
HOUSTON -- Kyrie Irving had just finished saying his All-Star
weekend was about earning everybody's respect. It was about the way a
second-year player already in the main-event Sunday showcase -- and off a
bad team at that -- wants to prove he belongs among the greats of the
game. He had, more specifically, just finished making the Foot Locker
Three-Point Contest an unexpected proving ground.
A
win on All-Star Saturday doesn't ordinarily count for anything real,
but there is nothing ordinary about Irving's situation. Emerging
superstar, yes; destined for a long career as one of the top point
guards, obviously; good enough to be the centerpiece of the Cavaliers'
future and about to become one of the key new pickups for Team USA in
international play, absolutely.
Except that Irving is so unknown as a threat from behind the arc, despite decent evidence to the contrary, that he rated himself a distant challenger in the event. In the end, he had the best mark among the three Eastern Conference competitors in the first round. He then beat San Antonio's Matt Bonner in the second and final round to win the contest in Toyota Center, and maybe even send a message in what should have been a playful moment compared to all the other accolades.
"I feel like I'm a better off-the-dribble shooter than a spot-up shooter," Irving said. "I'm not sure how many 3s I have on the year, but not as many as the guys I was shooting against out there. I try to be as efficient as possible. That's about it."
He has 82 threes on the year, behind four of the five others in the field and ahead of only Bonner, and Bonner has the excuse of averaging all of 12.6 minutes a game. Ryan Anderson, eliminated in the first round, has nearly twice as many at 159.
"I feel like I was a dark horse in this competition," said Irving, who does have the credibility of being 13th in the league in 3-point percentage. "I just wanted to go out and prove a point that I was one of the premier shooters out here with all these guys. Steve Novak and Matt Bonner, I never thought I'd beat those guys."
Terrence Ross is 2013 NBA slam dunk contest champion
HOUSTON (AP) -- Toronto rookie Terrence Ross beat defending champion Jeremy Evans to win the slam-dunk contest during All-Star Saturday night.
The 6-foot-6 Ross jumped over a ball boy, whipped the ball between his
legs and threw down a one-handed slam to clinch the victory. Earlier,
Ross donned a Vince Carter jersey, took a lob from high-school teammate
Terrence Jones off the edge of the backboard, spun in the air, and then
slammed home another one-hander.
Ross earned 58 percent of the fan vote in the championship round. The
first round was judged by former Houston Rockets Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde
Drexler, Dikembe Mutombo, Rudy Tomjanovich and Yao Ming.
Green started if off by taking a lob from Indiana teammate Lance Stephenson off the side of the backboard and soaring in for a reverse slam. White played off his "Flight White" nickname when he split two columns of cheerleaders dressed as flight attendants for a powerful two-handed dunk.
Hardly outdone, Ross earned a perfect score on his first dunk, whipping the ball around his waist before smacking down a one-hander.
Evans, meanwhile, used former Jazz giant Mark Eaton as a prop on his dazzling first attempt. The 7-foot-4 Eaton held the ball above his head as he sat on a box and Evans swiped the ball and soared over his head.
Hall of Famers Bill Russell and Julius Erving, singer Alicia Keys, rapper Drake, director Spike Lee and comedian Chris Tucker were among those sitting courtside. Keys is performing at halftime of Sunday's All-Star game.
Paul becomes first Clippers ever to win All-Star MVP
HOUSTON (AP) -- Chris Paul knew exactly what to do with the unlimited talent around him in Sunday's NBA All-Star game: find the open man and enjoy the show.
He made 7-of-10 shots, including four 3-pointers, and became the third player to have at least 20 points and 15 assists in the league's annual showcase, joining a couple Hall of Fame point guards, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas.
"In games like this, it's so up-tempo and fast-paced," Paul said. "A guy like me, that's a facilitator, I enjoy (it)."
Paul already had the best per-game assists average in All-Star history, 12.4 in four appearances. He had nine assists and plenty of fancy dribbling in the first half and one of his niftiest moves came right before one of his only mistakes.
When 6-foot-11 Chris Bosh came out to the wing to guard him, Paul slid the ball between Bosh's legs and darted past him. He then threw an errant pass into the lane and Dwyane Wade intercepted, one of Paul's three turnovers in the game.
Paul didn't have a miscue in the second half, and had nine points in the final quarter to help the West win for the fourth time in five seasons.
He tried to hook up with the high-flying Griffin for one of their trademark alley-oops early in the third quarter. They mis-timed it, though, and Griffin had to come down before going up for a more conventional dunk.
But with so many stars to choose from, Paul could spread it around. He flicked a pass to Dwight Howard for a jam and found Tim Duncan cutting down the lane for another one in the third quarter. Paul also pitched a few assists to Kevin Durant, who finished with 30 points.
"This game is slightly different than a regular-season game," Paul said. "You have to pick your poison. You tag Blake at the rim for a dunk, you're leaving KD wide open for the 3."
Maybe just wanting to try something different midway through the third quarter, Paul backed up to the corner and swished a 3-pointer for an 88-86 lead for the West.
"Most of the time, I was open," Paul said. "I was wide-open for the first two 3s that I hit. The other ones, the shot clock was running down, so I almost was forced to shoot a couple of times."
Paul, leading the league this season with 2.59 steals per game, had four in the All-Star game.
"He had great passes, (was) making steals, made big buckets," Durant said. "He played a hell of a game. It was a pleasure playing with him."
Paul is averaging 9.6 assists - second to Boston's Rajon Rondo - in his second season with the Clippers. More significantly, he's led the Clippers to a 39-17 record and he, Blake Griffin and "Lob City" have helped their franchise steal some of the L.A. spotlight from the floundering Lakers, who currently sit 10th in the Western Conference.
In an All-Star format, where the defense is lazier than the regular season, a player like Paul excels. He had 12 assists in last year's game and 14 in each of his first two, when he played for New Orleans.
"You just want to play fast," Paul said. "I like to throw the lob. I like to see guys hit 3s. When you're out on the court with all that firepower, why wouldn't you want to make passes? You've got KD (Durant) filling one of the lanes, you've got Blake, Kobe (Bryant) on the wing. There's nothing like it."
