Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was named All-Star MVP after his team – the USA Stars – defeated the rival U.S. squad – USA Stripes – 47-21 in the All-Star championship game. It’s Edwards’ first All-Star MVP award and his third All-Star appearance overall.
The first three games of the All-Star game rewarded the choice of format, with all three matchups decided by one possession.
In game one between USA Stars and Team World, Victor Wembanyama (Spurs) set the tone early, recording 14 points and three blocks while his teammate Karl-Anthony Towns (Knicks) contributed 10 points. Edwards led the Stars attack with 13 points, but it was Scottie Barnes (Raptors) who knocked down the game-winning three-pointer, completing a comeback to defeat his head coach, Darko Rajakovic, who was coaching Team World.
After the game, Edwards credited Wembanyama for doing what he said he would and amping up the intensity on the floor for everyone.
Game two between the two American teams also came down to the final shot, as Jaylen Brown (Celtics) led USA Stripes in scoring while Edwards and Cade Cunningham (Pistons) paced USA Stars with 11 points apiece. De’Aaron Fox (Spurs) hit the game-winning three-pointer for the Stars.
In game three, Kawhi Leonard (Clippers) took over for his home crowd, scoring 31 points in 12 minutes on 11-of-13 shooting while Wembanyama kept Team World in it with 19 points of his own. Leonard iced the game with a three-pointer over Towns to take USA Stripes to the championship game in a rematch with USA Stars.
In the fourth and final game, USA Stripes’ older legs appeared worn down by the previous two contests and the younger stars ran out to a 12-1 lead, led by Edwards and Tyrese Maxey (Sixers), who finished with a game-high nine points. They pushed the lead up to 26-9 on an Edwards three-pointer and eventually went on a 15-0 run, as Jalen Brunson (Knicks) and LeBron James (Lakers) were the only players to hit a field goal over the first seven minutes for USA Stripes. Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers) finished the game with a team-high six points for USA Stripes.
All-Star Game reactions and overreactions:
– On the World team only Wemby was serious about competing
– Luka and Jokic are the most lazy and unserious stars in the league
– It’s the young stars’ time now. Unc time is over.
– Kawhi’s still got it
– This All-Star format works?
– Nobody on the Stripes team should be on the 2028 USA Olympic team
– The underperformers shouldn’t have been All-Stars
– There should be a new format more often so players don’t get tired of the same format. Keep the working ones in the rotation.
“Luka and Jokic are the most lazy and unserious stars in the league.”
Why? Because they didn’t care to compete in a meaningless All-star game? I don’t think unserious players lead their teams to the Finals as the best player. “Unserious” is an adjective better reserved for people like LaMelo Ball
“These two dudes out there, Luka and Jokić, they don’t care about the game at all.” – Kevin Durant said this.
Luka is a shot-chucker and if he really cared to win so badly, he would play more consistent defense in regular and playoff games.
Jokić cares about his horses and just takes care of business with the season.
Both players are great players, but if they put more effort into the game, they would be even better. Fans want to see the best players compete every night. It’s a bit of a shame they didn’t when every other player wanted to compete for something. Even Kawhi was balling out there and put on a show.
You do know they are both nursing injuries.
Luka doesn’t have to play D. He does too much on offense lol …. 1Way Wonder
Jokic plays. He just is in control of his emotions. Jokic plays D. He’s just smart about it.
“– It’s the young stars’ time now. Unc time is over.
– Kawhi’s still got it”
I don’t disagree really, but seeing these two points next to each other was funny.
Jokic is the exact opposite of “lazy”.
Smh!
The game was better than it has been. But I think the people saying it’s back need to slow down a bit. The game still was a far cry from the games I grew up with 20 years ago.
I grew up with those same games, but they were not competitive at all they had more tricks. They also had more players I cared about because I was a kid so I was easier to please and didn’t understand the business of the game.
This was better played than any of those, but I don’t think the All Star game is back. They won’t be able to do US vs World because we would get the same World players, then Luka and Jokic never care to actually play much. They would have to reach for foreign players that are not true All Stars just to have a new guys here and there.
Eh. I feel like the last 15 minutes of all those games we’re talking about actually were very intense. Maybe that’s just what I’m thinking of and imagining it was the whole game. I just feel like they were better watches overall
The games were fun, I do think the US guys ramped up just to shut Wemby up bit. I am pretty glad he went 0-2 honestly.
Wemby might be the new Kobe where he encourages others to play hard
This is a joke
I enjoyed it until the old boys ran out of gas…
The world team was down 3 players woth Giannis, Luka and Jokic and were still competitive…
Will be interesting to see how they shuffle it next season…
There needs to be instigators for the All Star game to mean something… Love them or hate them… Wemby and Ant played instigator roles throughout the night…
Slight correction 4 players you forgot MVP SGA on World.
True… makes it even bigger…
SGA is forgettable. No one wants to see 15 free throws in an allstar game.
Award points for defensive plays, too.
Worst all star weekend EVER. get an actual allstsr in the dunk competition. Used to have dwight Howard, blake Griffin, lavine, Jordan, Wilkins, etc. Edwards, Thompson bros, and a quick nimble big. Bring back the shooter stars challenge, that had a current all star, wnba all star and a hall of fame all star. Go back to east vs west or have the team captain selection again- with the “Kobe format”
Perhaps scrap the all star weekend and let everyone have a couple days off. Then perhaps they would need fewer people in season rest management days. Stupid.
Getting rid of the ASG would take care of a lot of of back-to-backs.
I really miss the old format West vs East. Where the players still have their pride to win. Watching the so called plumbers are more entertaining than the podcast wannabes. Lol
Jaylen Brown showed exactly why he wasn’t invited to the Olympics. Put a masterclass of selfishness out there and singlehandedly caused his team to lose.