NBA All-Star Game Recap: East Takes Victory in High-Scoring Game
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:05 For the first time since 2017, six years without East versus West,
00:10 we had team captains and an NBA All-Star draft.
00:13 There was some hope maybe it would spark motivation and pride once again.
00:18 We got rid of the Elam ending, that was confusing.
00:21 Just a focus on good and fun basketball, and there were some fun moments.
00:27 But I think you really felt either way about the All-Star game,
00:30 depending on what your expectations were entering said All-Star weekend
00:35 in Indianapolis.
00:36 We start with the game, then our reactions.
00:39 211-186, the final score for the East.
00:43 The West closed as a two and a half point favorite.
00:46 The East plus 118 on the money line, a seven and
00:50 a half point favorite at the halftime break as they led 104-89.
00:55 The first ever team to score more than 200 points.
00:59 Donnie, the total worked its way down.
01:01 It was 362 and a half when we last spoke on Friday.
01:05 It closed at 356.
01:07 No matter, it goes well over 397 combined points.
01:12 We almost hit the 400 point benchmark between the two clubs.
01:16 >> Yeah, and the interesting part coming into it was the fact that there was gonna
01:19 be no Elam ending, which means no cap on the fourth quarter.
01:21 So some people right off the bat might say, you know what?
01:23 I'm just gonna take the over because now I have an uncapped fourth quarter.
01:27 And we know that these teams tend to run away,
01:29 which means we get a lot of offense in the All-Star games.
01:31 And we understand that.
01:32 But the reason for the dip was not because nobody forgot the rules and
01:35 why there's an Elam ending.
01:37 It's that the talk behind the scenes was, look,
01:41 we're not gonna play defense like it's the 1990s in the NBA.
01:44 And the game's gonna be 98, 97.
01:46 We knew that's not gonna be the case.
01:47 You always want your athletes to show up because that's what the All-Star game is
01:50 for.
01:51 But some of that talk from the background was like, okay,
01:53 we're not gonna just make a mockery and throw alley-oops left and right,
01:57 which they did, or shoot from half court three-point shots, which they did.
02:01 We're gonna play a semblance of a basketball game, which again,
02:03 might cut off, Ben, about 10 or 15 points from the total,
02:06 which you wouldn't miss out on, but enough to maybe hit an under or
02:09 keep that in a 160 to 140 realm, something like that, right?
02:13 Well, that didn't happen at all, and you knew it right away.
02:15 >> Yeah. >> A 53-47 first quarter,
02:17 multiple guys making 10 plus three-point shots.
02:20 One guy even scored 50 points in Carl Anthony Towns, and
02:22 wasn't even the MVP in this game.
02:24 We'll get into what we think is going to happen, but I do ask this question.
02:29 >> Right. >> The All-Star game, the need for it,
02:31 I don't think there is, and maybe the All-Star game would be better, Ben,
02:34 if you just played it after the season, that's sort of like an All-Star weekend
02:37 where it's just a lot of fun and parties and one last shot at your players here.
02:41 You can have some fun before you take that summer break into training camp.
02:44 I don't know, but I know this.
02:46 A lot of people watching on their couch, you get instant reaction on social media.
02:50 I didn't see very many people saying this is such a great All-Star game.
02:52 I can't wait to watch next year.
02:54 It's almost a wide pan of it saying, we gotta get back to just playing basketball,
02:58 which is always interesting.
02:59 The people will let you know right away, Ben.
03:01 [MUSIC]