2021 NBA All-Star Game: Team LeBron Vs. Team Durant 3/7/2021

The 2 teams playing in the 2021 NBA All-Star game were team LeBron and team Durant. Team LeBron’s coaching staff in this game was Duke Snyder and the rest of the Utah Jazz coaching staff. Team LeBron’s starters were Stephen Curry who had just won the 3 point contest, Luka Dončić, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokić. Team LeBron’s reserves were Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Ben Simmons, Jaylen Brown, Paul George, Damontas Sabonis who had just won the skills challenge, and Rudy Gobert. Team Durant was coached by Doc Rivers and the rest of the 76ers coaching staff. The starters for Team Durant were Kyrie Irving, the NBA leading scorer in Bradley Beal, last year’s All-Star game MVP Kawhi Leonard, Jayson Tatum, and Joel Embiid. The reserves for Team Durant were Zach LaVine, Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Zion Williamson, Julius Randle, and Nikola Vučević. Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, and Devin Booker were all injured in this game and all would’ve been on Team Durant. This game was shaping up to be an extremely entertaining game with the dunk contest at halftime. Would Team LeBron or Team Durant be able to get the win in a very abnormal all star game? To the game!

Giannis won the tip which led to a Kyrie Irving 3 after a defensive stop from Team Durant. At 11:23 Giannis made a dunk to give Team LeBron their first points of the game. At the 7 minute mark Stephen Curry made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 7 point lead. At the 6 minute mark Jayson Tatum made a dunk to make it a 3 point game for Team Durant. At 5:15 James Harden made a 3 to tie the game at 23 for Team Durant. Then at 4:43 Steph made a very deep 3 to take the lead back for Team Durant. At 4:05 Rudy Gobert dunked in a lob off of the ground from LeBron that gave Team LeBron a 5 point lead. At 3:41 Harden made another 3 to tie the game at 28. Steph quickly followed that up with a 3 of his own to give Team LeBron the lead back. Then at 3:17 Zach LaVine made a 3 to tie the game at 31 for Team Durant. Gobert then took the lead back at the 3 minute mark with an alley oop dunk from Chris Paul. At 2:26 Gobert made a layup to give Team LeBron a 6 point lead. At the 2 minute mark Donovan Mitchell made a layup to make it a 4 point game. At 1:33 Jaylen Brown made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 5 point lead. With 43.5 seconds left in the quarter Zach LaVine made an alley oop layup to cut it to a 3 point game for Team Durant. To end the quarter Donovan Mitchell slammed in an alley oop dunk. At the end of the first quarter Team LeBron was leading 40-39. This meant that Team LeBron’s charity which was the Thurgood Marshall College Fund got $150,000. Both teams played well in the first quarter but Team LeBron was barely able to edge out Team Durant by one point. Stephen Curry led Team LeBron in the first quarter with 12 points and Kyrie Irving led Team Durant with 10 points. In the first quarter Team LeBron had 1 fewer assist, 3 more rebounds, 3 fewer steals, 2 more blocks, 3 more turnovers, and 1 more foul than Team Durant. Team LeBron shot well in the first quarter with 51.5% from the field and 31.6% from downtown. Team Durant shot a little bit worse than Team LeBron with 47.2% from the field and 26.3% from 3. In the first quarter neither team made a free throw. Both teams hoped to win the second quarter and earn $150,000 for the historically black college or university.

Chris Paul won the tip over Mike Conley which led to a Chris Paul layup after defensive stops from each team. For Team Durant’s first points of the quarter Bradley Beal made a dunk that made it a 1 point game. At 10:24 Damian Lillard made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 6 point lead. At 9:55 Beal made a 3 to make it a 2 point game. At 9:27 Jayson Tatum made an alley oop dunk to tie the game at 47. Then at 9:05 Tatum a layup to give Team Durant a 2 point lead. The next play at 9:02 LeBron James made a dunk to tie the game back up for his team. At 8:55 Beal made a 3 to give Team Durant a 3 point lead. At 7:10 Zion Williamson made an alley oop dunk to give Team Durant a 6 point lead. Jaylen Brown quickly responded though by making a 3 that made it a 3 point game. Then Zion and Luka traded dunks leaving it at a 3 point game. At 5:53 Giannis made a hook shot to give Team LeBron the lead. At 3:23 Damian Lillard made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 6 point lead. At 2:30 Giannis made a 3 to give Team LeBron an 11 point lead. Then at 1:19 Dame dunked home a lob from Chris Paul to give Team LeBron a 16 point lead. Then Stephen Curry and Chris Paul each dunked home lobs from each other and made it a 20 point game after both dunks. With 32.2 seconds left in the half Nikola Vučević made a dunk to make it an 18 point game. With 6.4 seconds left in the half Stephen Curry made a half court 3 to give Team LeBron a 20 point lead at halftime. At halftime Team LeBron was winning 100-80. Team LeBron won the second quarter 60-41 which meant another $150,000 would go to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Giannis led Team LeBron at halftime with 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a block, and 100% from the field. Stephen Curry and Chris Paul also played well in the first half for Team LeBron with 22 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals and 6 points, 6 rebounds, 12 assists, and 2 steals respectively. Kyrie Irving was leading Team Durant at halftime with 15 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals. Kawhi Leonard and Jayson Tatum were also playing well though with a combined 27 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals at halftime. Team LeBron ended up with 3 more assists, 8 more rebounds, 4 fewer steals, 3 more blocks, 2 more turnovers, and 2 fewer fouls than Team Durant at halftime. Team LeBron was shooting extremely well at halftime with 65.6% from the field and 46.7% from deep. Team Durant was shooting well too with 51.5% from the field and 25% from 3. Both teams hoped to win the third quarter and Team Durant hoped to make the game winnable. The dunk contest happened at halftime and was between Obi Toppin, Cassius Stanley, and Anfernee Simons. Anfernee Simons and Obi Toppin made it to the final round where Anfernee Simons was able to pull out a win. To the third!

Stephen Curry won the jump ball over Zion Williamson which led to a Tatum 3 after a missed 3 from Curry. At 11:12 Giannis made a dunk to give Team LeBron their first points of the quarter. At the 10 minute mark Bradley Beal made a 3 to make it a 13 point game. At 9:48 Damian Lillard made a layup to give Team LeBron a 15 point lead. Then Zion and Giannis traded alley oop layups leaving the score at 108-93. At 8:35 Kyrie Irving made a layup to make it a 13 point game. At 8:13 Luka Dončić made a 3 to give team LeBron a 16 point lead. Then Jayson Tatum made a reverse layup and Giannis made a reverse dunk which kept the game with a 16 point difference. At 7:14 Kyrie Irving made a jumper to make it a 14 point game. At 7:08 Rudy Gobert made an alley oop dunk to give Team LeBron a 16 point lead once again. At 6:35 Donovan Mitchell made a 3 to make it a 15 point game. At the 6 minute mark Giannis made a 3 to give Team LeBron an 18 point lead. Then at 5:17 Rudy Gobert made a dunk to give Team LeBron a 20 point lead. At 5:04 James Harden made a 3 to make it a 17 point game for Team Durant. At 4:46 Paul George made a 3 of his own to give Team LeBron a 20 point lead once again. Then at 4:11 Donovan Mitchell made a layup to make it an 18 point game. At 3:31 Jaylen Brown made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 21 point lead. At 2:38 Brown made another 3 to give Team LeBron a 27 point lead. The next play at 2:28 Harden made a 3 to make it a 24 point game. Donovan Mitchell ended the quarter with a 3 that cut it to a 21 point game. At the end of the 3rd quarter Team LeBron was leading 146-125. Team LeBron ended up winning the 3rd quarter 46-45 which meant that the Thurgood Marshall College Fund would get another $150,000. After the first 3 quarters Giannis was leading Team LeBron with 35 points and Beal was leading Team Durant with 23 points. In the first 3 quarters Team LeBron had 8 more rebounds, 6 fewer steals, 3 more blocks, 4 more turnovers, and 1 fewer foul than Team Durant. Team LeBron and Team Durant each had 40 assists in the first 3 quarters. Team LeBron shot astoundingly in the first 3 quarters with 65.2% from the field and 50% from 3. Team Durant also shot well with 52% from the field and 33.9% from deep. Both teams entered the 4th quarter hoping to get the win.

The format in the 4th quarter of the All-Star game is unlike a normal game because in it the first team to get to 24 points away from where the team who was winning was won. So since Team LeBron had 146 points at the end of the 3rd quarter the first team to 170 points would win in honor of Kobe Bryant who passed away in 2020. To start the 4th quarter Zach LaVine made 1 of 2 free throws to make it a 20 point game. The next play Paul George made a 3 to give Team LeBron a 23 point lead and put them 21 points away from the win. James Harden followed that up with a 3 of his own to make it a 20 point game once again. After a miss from Jaylen Brown, Zach LaVine made a 3 to make it a 17 point game. A few plays later Brown was able to retaliate with a 4 point play to make it a 21 point game. Many plays later Jayson Tatum made a 3 to make the score 159-141. After a couple of turnovers from Giannis, Kawhi Leonard made a 3 to make it a 15 point game. Damian Lillard quickly responded with a layup to make it a 17 point game for Team LeBron. Then Lillard made a 3 to boost Team LeBron’s lead to 20 points. The next 2 plays were a Beal 3 and a Lillard 3. Then Jayson Tatum missed a 3 and Stephen Curry missed a 3 that would’ve won Team LeBron the game. After that James Harden made a 3 for Team Durant that made the score 167-150. To end the game Damian Lillard made a deep 3 that gave Team LeBron a 170-150 win. Since Team LeBron won the game the Thurgood Marshall College Fund received an additional $300,000.

Leo’s Courtside Commentary: Team LeBron played very well throughout this game but played especially well in the 2nd quarter winning it by 19 points. The 1st and 3rd quarters were won by Team LeBron by only 1 point each and Team Durant won the 4th quarter by 1 point. This was a very fun game to watch and definitely an entertaining one. Team LeBron was led by Giannis Antetokounmpo with 35 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, a block, and 100% from the field. Damian Lillard followed closely behind with 32 points, 2 rebounds, and an assist off the bench. Stephen Curry also played well with 28 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Chris Paul was also impressive with 6 points, a team leading 8 rebounds, a team leading 16 assists, and a team leading 3 steals. The captain of Team LeBron who was LeBron James only had 4 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and a block. Kyrie Irving led Team Durant with 24 points, 5 rebounds, 12 assists, and 2 steals. Bradley Beal led Team Durant in points with 26 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal. James Harden and Jayson Tatum also played well for Team Durant with a combined 42 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists, and 5 steals. The 2021 NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant MVP award ended up going to, the one, the only, Giannis Antetokounmpo! Team LeBron ended up with 1 fewer assist, 7 more rebounds, 6 fewer steals, 3 more blocks, and 4 more turnovers than Team Durant. Team LeBron and Team Durant each ended with 8 fouls. Team LeBron shot very well with 63.6% from the field, 50.8% from 3, and 60% on free throws. Team Durant also shot well with 52.6% from the field, 37.5% from downtown, and 60% from the free throw line. Both teams shot 3/5 from the free throw line meaning that only 10 free throws were attempted in this entire game. In the end Team LeBron’s charity, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund received a grand total of $750,000 and Team Durant’s charity, the United Negro College Fund got $0 from the game. Overall, this was a very entertaining All-Star Game and a nice win for Team LeBron.