NBA All Star Game 2020: Team LeBron triumphs in wild thriller
There has been high drama in a wild NBA All Stars Game after a series of controversial calls plagued a nail-biting win for Team LeBron.
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Team LeBron has emerged with a thrilling, heart-stopping victory on the back of high-pressure free throws from Anthony Davis in a battle that transformed the All Stars concept on Monday.
The new scoring system implemented for the 2020 All Stars Weekend created havoc and late drama as the 24 players suddenly showed incredible fight in a match that threatened to boil over.
A series of late controversial referee decisions which saw both teams slapped with with offensive fouls in the frantic final series of plays threatened to see the game explode as players angrily complained to the match officials. But in the end it was Team LeBron that kept its cool - after butchering countless chances to ice the game - by finding the killer blow that allowed them to reach the magical number of 157.
In a scoring system designed to further honour Kobe Bryant, the two teams needed to reach 157 points because it was 24 points more than the 133 points Team Giannis had at three-quarter time.
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It left Team LeBron needing to score 33 points in the fourth quarter, after they trailed by nine points at the final break.
In the end it was Davis' cold free-throw that decide the contest and gave Team LeBron a walk-off 157-155 victory.
Kawhi Leonard was awarded the first ever Kobe Bryant Award as the MVP of the All Star Game, after he dropped 30 points, including eight bombs from beyond the arc.
The brutal, bruising contest stood out from recent All Star Weekends as the most heated battle the concept has produced since the turn of the century.
Players were taking charges, bodies were hitting the floor, calls and non-calls were being screamed about on both ends. The fourth quarter of the NBA All-Star Game was as intense as the final moments of a playoff game, the biggest stars in the league holding absolutely nothing back.
“That was pretty damn fun,” a sweat-soaked, exhausted LeBron James said after his team's dramatic win.
James and Chris Paul each scored 23, and Davis finished with 20. Giannis Antetokounmpo, who captained his team, led his squad with 25 points, Kemba Walker had 23 for Team Giannis, Joel Embiid scored 22 and Rudy Gobert added 21.
Here's how the drama unfolded.
Originally published as NBA All Star Game 2020: Team LeBron triumphs in wild thriller