February 19, 2013
Ceci Ferrara
Sports Writer
Sports Insider
The West was the best in the NBA All-Star Game, beating the East All-Stars 143-138 on Sunday.
In a battle against the league’s top two players, Kobe Bryant came out on top, blocking LeBron James twice and foiling his attempt at a comeback. While Bryant blocked James’ jumper and turned it into points for the West, it was another LA player, the Clippers’ Chris Paul, who took home MVP honors.
Paul scored twenty points and had fifteen assists in the West’s victory. His Clippers teammate Blake Griffin added nineteen points, while rising star Kevin Durant had thirty points that the night. Carmelo Anthony was the lead scorer for the East, with twenty-six points and twelve rebounds.
“I think we played really good defense at the end of the game as a team,” Durant told reporters afterwards. “Kobe was really going with the ball. It’s tough to stop LeBron, but he did his best. He was able to block a few of his shots. But Chris Paul did a really good job of keeping us in the game.”
This year’s All-Star Game fell on the fiftieth birthday of the player widely regarded as the league’s best ever, Michael Jordan. While many All-Stars honored the six-time title winner and five time MVP on Sunday—Dwayne Wade called him “groundbreaking” while Dwight Howard said he “inspired us to do great things”—they may also have been wondering if they will soon face their hero on the court.
During his NBA Hall of Fame induction speech in 2009, Jordan, who came out of retirement twice before calling it quits for good at age thirty-nine, told the crowd not to discredit one final comeback. “One day you might look up and see me playing the game at fifty,” he said, eliciting chuckles from the crowd. “Oh, don’t laugh. Never say never. Because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Jordan, who is currently the majority owner and director of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats, made his last NBA appearance in 2002 for the Washington Wizards.
Capitals
After a loss to the New York Rangers Sunday, the Capitals (5-9-1) get to enjoy a rare three-day break before they return home to take on the Devils Thursday.
The break is a welcome respite after a road-trip where they beat both the Panthers and the Lightning before falling to the Rangers.
“Any break right now is good,” goalie Braden Holtby said over the weekend. “We have been lucky, knock on wood, that we haven’t had a huge amount of injuries and rest is the best thing for that. There are a lot of guys battling little things and a couple days off will help us recuperate.”
Despite road wins against two division rivals, the Caps are still at the bottom of the standings. They hope that after the break their rocky start will be behind them and they will have a shot at the playoffs.
Coach Adam Oates hopes his vision for the team will soon be realized, after struggling in their first fifteen games. “You wanna get better at doing every little thing you can, so we’ll figure out which ones we want to work on,” he told reporters. “But we’ve got a couple good practice days to do it.”
