HoopWatch

The Western All-Stars walloped their Eastern counterparts, 153-132. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 31 and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). It’s his second All-Star MVP plum, his first was in 2002 at his hometown Philadelphia. Bryant also added five rebounds, six assists and six steals.

The Phoenix duo of Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion were equally superb for Coach Mike D’Antoni. Stoudemire, after a career-threatening microfracture surgery, contributed 29 points, nine rebounds and a block, while Marion had 18 points, eight boards, four dimes and two steals on 9-for-15 shooting from the field.

Denver’s Carmelo Anthony also played well. He had 20 points and nine caroms. Seattle’s Ray Allen was the fifth guy in double figures for the West. He scored 12 points and was 4-for-7 from the three-point line. Actually, all his field goals were from the rainbow area.

Cleveland’s Lebron James, last year’s All-Star MVP, led the East with 28 points, six rebounds and six dimes in 32 minutes. Orlando’s Dwight Howard was the only other splendid Eastern player. His production went 20 points, 12 caroms and a block at a high 10-for-14 shooting.

I know, I know, I was terribly wrong in my prediction. I thought the East would make another huge comeback in this one, just as they did for a couple of All-Star games back. Well, actually, a three-in-a-row victory for the East is just too far-fetched. I just thought of this a day too late. Clearly, the West has far more superior talent. But for this one, I missed one very important little detail – the coach factor.

Coaches for these kind of games are so essential. They determine who plays when, and who plays with whom. They allocate the minutes and control the rotation. Since they don’t have ample time to practice plays and sets, the coach has to rely on a pre-existing chemistry among certain players. One practice is enough for a coach to recognize which five play well together, or when a certain player performs well when this other guy is on the floor at the same time with him. That’s what Detroit’s Flip Saunders did last year. He fielded his four Detroit stars, namely Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace, all at once in that game’s third period. And the East made their comeback when these four plus Lebron were on the floor.

And in this year’s All-Star edition, D’Antoni clearly has more experience and savvy over Washington’s Eddie Jordan. I hate to hear from a coach that he has no confidence in coaching the best of the best. Jordan made a comment before the game that he still felt that he did not belong to the All-Stars, to the same level as Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and Chuck Daly. Now that’s bad luck, and how can your team win when you do not believe in yourself.

Anyway, D’Antoni’s rotation was flawless. He injected a lot of Sun’s system into it, played seven games over 20 minutes (as opposed to Jordan who played only five people over 20 with Lebron playing for an over-extended 32), started the game with three versatile and effective seven-footers in Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett with no point guard and two athletic scoring guards in Bryant and Tracy McGrady, and he started the third canto with Stoudemire, Marion, Josh Howard, Bryant and McGrady, perhaps his best move. All five have reliable perimeter shots, extremely athletic and so versatile that they could and did interchange their positions. D’Antoni knew when to field-in who, and who to play with whom. He mostly played small ball, and avoided playing Mehmet Okur and Nowitzki together. They are both redundant when they’re together, both soft and perimeter centers. That’s just not good for a team if I may comment.

Basically, there are three important factors which led to the West’s impeccable lopsided victory – threes made, turnovers and team chemistry.

The lambasting started in the second quarter when Allen, Nowitzki and Bryant shot three straight triples that broke the game wide open. The West made two more threes. You may say that the difference is just so small and insignificant, but, hey, it was the timing of these threes that made the big diff. Most of these trifectas were shot during the pulling-away periods, when the shots for the West were pouring in, and the goal for the East was shut. The West outscored the East, 40-28 and 40-29 in the second and third periods.

The East also turned the ball over many times from the start through the third, a total of 20 in the game. (They may have scored 44 points in the fourth, but the game was already over). It’s not because they made a helluva number of bad passes, but it was the West defense who forced these turnovers. The West had 17 steals compared to the East’s 10. The West converted on most of these swipes in the form of alley-hoops and dunks.

With this kind of defense and the run-and-gun-Phoenix-style-of-play incorporated into the Western offense, the West played more like a team in the process. Their steals led to fast break opportunities, and they made an NBA-record 69 field goals in the process. The West had a whopping 52 assists compared to only 29 for the East. That 23-disparity is equivalent to 46 more points, technically. As a result, the West led by as much as 35 to the frustration of James and MVP-hopeful Gilbert Arenas. (pics courtesy of nba.com)