After 25 years, the All-Star Weekend returned to Cleveland, three days, the Celebrity Game, the Rookie Game, the three major individual events, the All-Star Game, the basketball battlefield smoke and stars.
Masters: Tucsont helps Wharton sing triumphant songs
The Masters Game is played by a team of well-known people from various industries, including professional athletes and general sports enthusiasts, and the best team members of the NBA's 75th anniversary, basketball stars Bill Walton and Dominic Wilkins are coaches. The atmosphere was lighthearted, but there was no shortage of highlights, such as Harlem basketball player Christissa Jackson and Cleveland Browns' Miles Garrett's back pass dunk.
Olympic high jump champion Gian Marco Tamberi volley.
There is also the indispensable big hot pot to cover the sky and the garbage words that burst out of passion.
Road bike coach Alex Tucsont became the star of the Celebrity Race, scoring 18 points to lead Wharton to a 65-51 victory over Wilkins, and Tucsont was named MVP of the Masters.
Rookie Tournament: Serial Killer Title King
This rookie challenge game adopts a new game model, 28 players form 4 teams to play, these 28 players are 12 NBA rookies, 12 NBA "second-year" players, 4 G League (development league) ignition team players, this is the first time from the G League players to play in the rookie tournament, NBA 75th Anniversary Best Team members Rick Barry, Gary Payton, Isaiah Thomas and James Worthy as coaches, selected to form a team.
The game cancels the time limit and sets the target score, the target score of the two semi-finals is 50 points, the target score of the final is 25 points, and the team that finally wins the championship will get a total of 75 points, paying tribute to the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NBA.
Dunks are reserved for rookies, and Jaren Green's air-to-air slam dunks are crisp and clean, with a flowing sense of violent aesthetic, which would be good if used in dunk contests.
Cole Anthony's aerial relay is also quite OK, and looking at the dunk game, is it an overdraft of inspiration in the rookie game?
Rookie games can not lack dunks, but can not always dunk, want to dunk more than fifty dunks that year, is really aesthetic fatigue, NBA this reform of the game format, is to minimize the proportion of performance, increase the real knife and real gun.
The restructuring was immediate, the first semi-final spelled to the last goal, Isaiah's Bane walked to the free throw line, the free throw let the team get 50 points to advance to the final, Cole Anthony took out the rookie game to take off his pants to defend the famous scene, but Bane was not moved, and he was calm and idle to kill the penalty.
The second semi-final also fought to a sword to seal the throat, Barry's Tate rushed to the level, the limit pull, killed the game, Bari and Isaiah team met in the final.
If you only look at absolute athletic talent, it is inevitable to wonder how Cunningham became a champion in the draft year. But in the game, Cunningham does have the talent of the champion and the first, he is a typical big core of the ball, such as the rookie final this time to split the ball, the right side of the high block demolition, the magic pass left bottom line empty cut Tate played 2 + 1, this is the field observation.
This three-point shot at the key moment is also a steady word, just as the general view of scouts before the draft, how Cunningham's upper limit is temporarily unknown, but the lower limit is the most reliable for this rookie.
In the final moments, Cunningham completed the steal, accurately found Wagner in the counterattack, Wagner made a foul to lock Barry's score at 25 with a free throw, Barry beat Isaiah 25-20 to win the rookie title, and Cunningham was elected MVP. Twenty-five years ago, iverson became the rookie MVP in Cleveland in 1996. When the All-Star comes to the city again, another champion lifts the Rookie MVP Trophy, which is also a kind of inheritance.
Key Ball Challenge: Bain hit a clean shot Baynes was full of joy
Between the second semifinals and finals of the NBA Rookie Tournament, the NBA launched the Key Ball Challenge, in which a total of 8 players from the NBA and G League Ignition Teams were divided into 4 teams, and the team with the fewest shots was shot at 5 playoff classic shooting points, all of which hit and the team with the least time to win.
The 5 points are "Magic" Johnson's "Little Sky Hook" position under the basket, Charles Barkley's arc top kill position, Damian Lillard's right LOGO with a sword to seal the throat position, Reggie Miller's right side stabbed the Bull position at 45 degrees, and Ray Allen's right bottom corner saved the Heat position.
Of the 5 points, the furthest from the basket is Lillard point, and the shooting efficiency of this position has a significant impact on the championship attribution. Teresa Halliburton and Desmond Bain duo hit a shot from Lillard and hit a total of 39.1 seconds on a five-point shot to shoot the champion.
The key ball game originally had a very tense atmosphere, but how can the All-Star lack entertainment? The scotty barnes and Teresse Maxi group, which was "nailed" to the small sky hook position, could not be thrown in any way, and added a lot of "laughing fruit" to the key ball game with a solemn atmosphere with a crazy attitude.
Skill Challenge: Alphabet Three Brothers Missed Final Knight Trio if divine help
The skill tournament has also been adjusted to adopt the team battle mode, the game structure is 3 rounds + final, the first and second teams with the first three rounds of points enter the final, and the final competition is half-time shooting, with a total of 3 teams and a total of 9 players participating.
Rookie teams: Scotty Barnes, Cunningham, Josh Gidey.
Cavaliers: Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley.
Antetokounmpo: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo, Sanasis Antetokounmpo.
The first round was a five-point shooter, with ST All-Star Garland scoring 21 points, more than the alphabet brothers all team (20 points), and the Cavaliers trio shot a total of 44 points to get 100 points in the first round.
The Alphabet Three Brothers, who lost the first round, won the second round of the passing game and got 100 points, the rookie team spent the least time in the third round of five competitions, the third round of points was 200 points, the rookie team reversed into the final, the other two teams scored a tie of three points at the top of the arc of the plus game, and Garland hit a hit to shoot the final seat.
The final was a half-time shot, the rookie team only took 9.9 seconds to shoot, which is already a speed, and the Cavaliers who played at home were even more super gods, the second shot was hit by Mobley, the time took only 5.5 seconds, the Cavaliers trio left the skill game championship trophy in Cleveland.
Three-point contest: Big Man is also a sharpshooter The first center three-point king
The three-point game followed last year's rules, with 8 players playing, with the top three players in the first round reaching the final, and the 8 contestants were C.J. McCollum, Trae Young, Zach Lavin, Desmond Bain, Carl Anthony Downs, Fred VanVleet, Luke Kennard, and Pat Mills.
The first round was both exciting and joyful, with VanVleet paying homage to Westbrook by hitting the rebounding side edge. Trae Young also played a deadlock in the three-point game, shooting the last ball in the first round, eliminating Mills with 22 points in the first round of 21 points, and joining hands with Kennard, who scored 28 points in the first round, and Towns, who scored 22 points. VanVleet (16 points), Bain (18 points), McCollum (19 points) and LaVine (14 points) missed the final with Mills.
In this three-point game of players, Towns is not optimistic, the odds of winning the championship before the game are at the bottom, although he has a 41% three-point shooting rate this season, although it is now the era when big men also have to shoot three points, but it still seems that there is no advantage compared to the guard, Downs this time with practical actions to prove that big men also have a sharpshooter, he felt the most popular in the final, the first 10 goals shot 9, and finally shot 29 points.
Trae Young and Kennard both scored 26 points in the final, and all three players in the final were 26+, which was undoubtedly a very high-level three-point battle, and Downs was a skilled player who added his name to the list of three-point kings, becoming the tallest three-point champion since Nowitzki in 2006 and the first center to receive this honor.
"I knew I wasn't going to be favored because I was a big guy and I was thrilled that I had proven myself by playing." Towns said.
Dunk Contest: Awkward bottoming out, expecting a bounce
Downs, who won the skill game in 2016 and was crowned a three-point king this time, said after the game that he would not participate in the individual events in the future because he felt that he would definitely not win the dunk contest.
Did Downes say this too early? If he looks at this year's dunk game, would he consider retracting his previous decision?
The dunk contest we're looking forward to is like this.
And the dunk contest we're seeing in 2022 is like this.
It is reasonable to say that the dunk contest should be compared to who is the most ethereal, the most fierce, the most creative, but this year is the comparison of who can buckle!
The four contestants, Cole Anthony, Juan Toscano Anderson, Obi-Topping and Jaren Green, totaled 7 of 25 dunks, shooting 28% from the field, Wade scored 6 points, and O'Neal was a "pain-watching" expression.
Not to deny Topping's winning qualities, he was indeed the best one in this tournament, giving some difficulty and creativity to make the game less sleepy.
However, even if it is the champion Topin, his actions are placed in a higher level of dunk games, and it is a bit difficult to take the first place, which is also the bottleneck of the dunk contest, often after a classic, it goes to mediocrity, and then looks forward to another bottoming out.
This time in 2022, perhaps it is the exploration of the lower limit of the dunk contest, which makes the 2023 game, there will be some unknown reverie, whether it will really happen, there is always hope, this is the charm of the dunk contest.
All-Star Game: James sends off the stars of Curry
The All-Star Regular Game has adopted the captain's draft team system for the fifth consecutive time, this time it is James vs Durant, which is the fifth consecutive year that Old Zhan has become the captain.
Returning to Cleveland over the all-Star weekend, James was a "home game", and he appeared in the sky and threw magnesium powder, as if yesterday reappeared.
If the dunk contest disappoints you, the All-Star will definitely make up for it for you, and it will still be broadcast in excess.
For example, the world's best waist Mo Shaoxia.
Lavine's action is almost five successful, and it may be a champion in the dunk game.
The Cleveland Twins are full of tacit understanding, and then think about the dunk game again and again, the strong contrast.
To say the whole work, but also James, this self-throwing effect laughed and giggled.
James scored 24 points in this game, and the total number of points in his All-Star career reached 413 points, becoming the first Mr. 400 points in All-Star history. In All-Star history, no one except James has scored 300+ points.
James is refreshing history, and the All-Stars are paying tribute to history. During the half-time break, the 75th Anniversary Best Team Ceremony was held, engraving the legendary history, and the scene flashed by, it was a tribute, a nostalgia, a gathering of the past, and a vision of the future.
The celebration culminates in the moment Jordan appears, and despite the efforts to keep a low profile, the influence of the greatest players of all time always shines. The NBA left the center stage position to Jordan, which is from the official certification, the best player in 75 years, not one.
The various stages of basketball's development docked in this game, as the pioneer of the small-ball era, Curry played a "wow" explosion, scoring 16 three-pointers, easily breaking the All-Star single-game three-point record (the original record was Paul George's 9 three-pointers in 2016).
Curry will occasionally lose the touch of this season, in this game to find the ball back, three points like a rain to hit basho shot farther and farther.
The Durant team is all on the bag, but Curry still raises his hand, and the commentary seat is not calm.
Curry's three-point explosion created a chance to win the All-Star MVP, but only if he had to win. The All-Star Game follows the fourth quarter target point tiebreaker system, which is based on the score of the leading party in the first three quarters plus 24 points, specific to this game is 163 points.
The defensive intensity of the two teams in the fourth quarter was significantly improved, and the battle to the final moment, the ownership of the victory and defeat was still suspenseful, and the end of this suspense was Cleveland's chosen son James, the old Jan with a difficult turn over jump shot to seal the throat, James won 163-160, this is the fifth consecutive year that James team won the All-Star Game, since the 2018 restructuring has not lost.
Curry, who shot 17-of-30 from 17 three-point range and 16-of-27 from the field, slashed 50 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks, becoming the second player in All-Star history to have 50+ in a single game, second only to Anthony Davis' 52 points set in 2017 in the single-game scoring list, and the All-Star MVP was in the pocket.
With the old Zhan's death, Curry lifted the All-Star's newly designed Kobe Bryant Cup, and the 2022 All-Star Weekend came to an end. In these three days, there have been countless wonderful things left, and there are also some regrets. In 2023, the All-Stars will come to Salt Lake City, looking forward to the wonderful continuation, regrettably retreating.
All-Star, see you in a year.