East All-Stars Cut Off West at the Pass, 111-110

By LONNIE WHITE

Feb. 12, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON — The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has been ripped throughout his career for being a selfish player but when the time came for him to take the final shot in Sunday’s 50th NBA All-Star game . . . he passed.

After making three consecutive baskets down the stretch to keep the Western Conference team in position to win, Bryant found San Antonio’s Tim Duncan for an open last-second shot only to have Duncan’s attempt partially blocked by Toronto’s Vince Carter to give the East team a 111-110 victory before a sellout MCI Center crowd of 20,374.

Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson was selected most valuable player of the game after scoring 15 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to lead the East, which rallied from a 21-point second-half deficit.

“We wanted to win . . . from the beginning,” said Iverson, who also had five assists and four steals. “We knew everybody was saying we could not win, because of our size. But it is not about the size on paper. It’s about the size of your heart.”

Don’t tell the smorgasbord of celebrities who sat courtside or the thousands who paid as much as $150 for cheap seats that the NBA is declining. Not after Sunday’s game, which featured one of the most exciting fourth quarters in All-Star game history.

Bryant, who said his sore right shoulder did not bother him during the 30 minutes he played, appeared ready to be a hero after a fourth-quarter shooting duel with Iverson and New Jersey’s Stephon Marbury.

Over the final two minutes of the game, every time Iverson or Marbury made a field goal, Bryant answered. But he didn’t try a shot after Marbury’s three-point shot gave the East a one-point lead with 28.4 seconds remaining.

“I was just reading the defense,” said Bryant, who is not known to pass up a final shot playing for the Lakers. “I had an opportunity for a shot, but Tim had a better look . . . so I gave the ball up to him.”

In a game that seemed to cater more to television than the fans in the stands, the West dominated for three quarters but lost once Iverson, Carter and Marbury began to heat up.

“We kept searching for the right chemistry,” said Milwaukee’s Glenn Robinson, who finished with eight points and four rebounds. “Once we finally got it right, Coach [Larry] Brown stuck with it, and it paid off for us because we got the momentum. Everybody was making big shots.”

Despite having Laker center Shaquille O’Neal sidelined because of a foot injury, the West team had a huge size advantage over the East. That was evident early as the West ran to an 11-0 lead. Duncan put up eight points and Chris Webber and Bryant combined for 10 to help lead the West to a 30-17 lead after one quarter. The West had a rebounding edge of 20-9 and limited the East to 33% field-goal shooting in the first quarter.

Ray Allen, who won Saturday’s three-point shooting contest, helped the East get back into the game with nine of his 15 points in the second quarter. Behind a 7-0 run, which was highlighted by Carter’s crowd-pleasing slam, the East cut its deficit to one, but the West responded late in the second quarter, and Jason Kidd’s halfcourt three-point basket gave the West a 61-50 lead at halftime.

After the NBA honored previous All-Star game MVPs at halftime, the West pounded the East inside in the third quarter. Featuring exceptional depth in the frontcourt, the West bounced to a 19-point lead heading into the fourth.

“We started the game wanting to punish them early,” said Webber, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.

But the West’s comfortable lead disappeared once Iverson and Carter changed the tempo. After Iverson tied the score, 100-100, the game turned into a competition of who would make or miss the last shot.

For the NBA, Sunday’s game may be the shot in the arm it needed.

For weeks, the league had been criticized for having players more worried about their own statistics than how many victories their teams have. But Sunday’s fourth quarter showed how today’s players can play when the situation demands it.

“I think it is really not on us [today’s players] to make a conscious effort to show how great this game is,” Bryant said. “I think that’s something that’s just going to happen.

“But us naturally going out and playing the game that we love to play, you’re going to have things [happen like Sunday’s game].”

Which in the end, belonged to Iverson and the East.

“It’s not easy to win in a war like this when you have so many great players on the court at one time,” said Iverson, who was chosen as MVP ahead of East teammates Dikembe Mutombo, who had 22 rebounds and three blocked shots, and Marbury, who finished with 12 points, including the critical shots in the final minutes.

“I’ll cherish this honor the rest of my life.”

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All-Star 2001

Kobe Bryant’s 19-point performance Sunday ranks 14th among Lakers who played in the All-Star game:

32 POINTS

Elgin Baylor (1962)

25 POINTS

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1984)

Magic Johnson (1992)

22 POINTS

Elgin Baylor (1968)

Jerry West (1970)