Team LeBron Wins NBA All-Star Game, and Stephen Curry scores 50 points

In Sunday’s NBA All-Star game Team LeBron took on Team Durant. At halftime, the NBA honored the Top 75 players by giving each player individual introductions with Earth Wind and Fire performing “Shining Star.”

Three players made early news for the All-Star Game. Donovan Mitchell sat out with a non-COVID-19 related illness, and it was announced on TNT that Chris Paul suffered a thumb fracture which will keep him out for six to eight weeks just before the game. He checked in late in the first quarter.

Kevin Durant was also unable to attend the All-Star festivities after his mother, Wanda Pratt, announced that his grandmother passed away Sunday and left Cleveland to be with his family.

As for the game itself, two guys from Akron stole the show. Stephen Curry put on a shooting clinic all evening, hitting 16 3-pointers and scoring 50 points, while LeBron James hit an absurd, one-legged turnaround jumper to clinch the victory for Team LeBron over Team Durant 163-160.

Curry, who set the NBA’s record for 3-pointers made earlier this season, hit an absurd 16 3-pointers — which would be the most in any game in NBA history, and smashed the prior All-Star Game record of nine. After setting the first-half record with eight triples, Curry brought the crowd — which had loudly booed the Golden State Warriors star before the game — to its feet when he nailed five straight 3-pointers early in the third quarter, including one on three consecutive possessions.

He then hit his 15th 3 — more than anyone has ever made in an NBA game — at the end of a passing sequence that saw him pass it to James, who threw it to Nikola Jokic, who passed to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who then swung it to Curry in the corner. Curry then let it fly, and he fully turned around to celebrate before the ball softly fell through the net.

During the next timeout, Curry said into the microphone he was wearing for TNT, “Can someone tell me what the record is for points?”

Ultimately, Curry wound up with “only” 50 points — missing a couple of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that would’ve allowed him to surpass the 52 points Anthony Davis scored to set the record in 2017 — before James ended the contest with his dagger over Zach LaVine.