AIR CANADA CENTRE, TORONTO, ON — Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green represented the Western Conference All-Star team tonight in the 65th NBA All-Star Game in Toronto.
Curry, who had the second-most votes, started the game. He and Green had this pregame handshake:
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1st Quarter – Steph Curry With The Smash, Boy
Curry missed his first trey attempt, from the left corner after he found Kawhi Leonard, who passed the ball back as Steph re-oriented himself beyond the arc.
After a defensive rebound, a good view of Dwyane Wade providing the first alley-oop of the night on an acrobatic play to LeBron James, reminiscent of the 2012 champion Miami Heat, Leonard got an opportunity to score a triple from the same left corner on a feed of a cutting Curry, but Kawhi missed too.
Curry got a nice close-out of a missed three from the right corner by James.
Later, Russell Westbrook stole the ball from Wade and in transition, Curry cut to the middle again, this time Durant fed him and Steph stuffed it, closing an early East lead to 14-13:
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The Raptors’ DJ played the segment of Drake’s song, “Steph Curry with the shot, boy,” after the dunk.
Curry then got his first assist as Kevin Durant as Steph lobbed an alley-oop to Russell Westbrook who passed up the opportunity for the catch, not sure if the intended receiver was for him or Durant.
Steph got another bucket after a Paul George three, shaking and baking and Euro-stepping right-to-left for a reverse layup, right-handed. That made the score 25-17, East.
The DJ once again played the Drake snippet.
Westbrook got a dunk, Durant got two more, and Eastern head coach Tyronne Lue called a timeout with 5:42 to play and the East holding a 25-23 lead.
At the 4:44 mark, Western Conference head coach Gregg Popovich subbed out all five starters, bringing in the Warriors’ Klay Thompson to go along with Chris Paul, James Harden, Anthony Davis and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Thompson missed three threes, though, as the quarter ended with the East up, 43-40.
2nd Quarter –
Klay finally drained one from the right arc, assisted by Paul, to make it 45-43, East, with 11:09 to go in the second quarter:
#KlayThompson hitting a three in Toronto … where have we seen that before? #NBAAllStarTO pic.twitter.com/t153oyl1zg
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) February 15, 2016
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Green checked in at the 10:18 mark and promptly missed a jumper eight seconds later, made a turnover, then missed this jam:
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Thompson missed one more three, totaling just 1-for-5 on his field goals, all three-pointers, before Curry subbed in for him. Leonard and Bryant were two other starters who also checked in at that time.
Green rebounded a Pau Gasol missed rebound and, out of a side inbound, DeMarcus Cousins caught Curry’s pass and drilled a three from the top.
Then Steph got into the triple action as he side-stepped by a Draymond screen and pulled up for three:
#StephenCurry from deep! https://t.co/YMWJ9LnmWE
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 15, 2016
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First-Team All-Defense selection Green wasn’t trying to get in anyone’s way, and he let an alley-oop go to Andre Drummond uncontested after Kobe and LeBron cleared out the right wing for a little one-on-one action, with James slapping the floor in jest to signal to Bryant bring it on. Kobe missed a fade-away after a couple of pump fakes to which the merciful LeBron did not bite.
Later, Steph got his hand on a made basket inbound by Carmelo Anthony and fed Green for an easy layup to make it 73-71, East.
Curry assisted Leonard for a triple, then missed a 35-foot attempt which drew anticipation from the arena’s crowd. However, Leonard jammed home the long-arcing miss.
Steph got an easy layup as the East shifted way over to cover the left wing, and Durant found Curry cutting to the hoop, which cut the East lead to 92-90 with 38.4 seconds remaining.
The score remained that way at halftime as Westbrook launched a deep three from the top at the buzzer. Durant actually dunked home the putback, not cleanly though, a millisecond after the buzzer as Steph was underneath him. Durant was careful to make sure Curry was okay.
At the half, Curry had 9 points on 4-for-8 field plus 2 rebounds and 5 assists, but the #SplashBrothers were both 1-for-5 apiece from deep. Green had 2 points and 2 rebounds. Paul led the West with 9 assists and Wade had 6 assists. There were eight other players in double-digit scoring.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @nba)
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