At the NBA All-Star Game, Team Giannis, coached by Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, defeated LeBron James for the first time as a captain, winning 184-175 in Salt Lake City.
Antetokounmpo took the opening tip to the basket for the game’s first basket and then left, so he didn’t do much, but that was to be expected. He has been recovering from a wrist injury.
However, James also missed a lot of this game because of a hand injury. James’ hand got caught on the rim as he attempted to block Toronto Raptors big man Pascal Siakam.
Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics was the one who had to step up and be the star of the show with those two out.
After contributing to Team Giannis’ victory by scoring an impressive 55 points, Tatum was named the All-Star Game MVP.
The All-Star Game scoring record was broken by Tatum, who scored 55 points on 22 of 31 attempts, including 10 of 18 attempts from three-point range. While playing for the New Orleans Pelicans in 2017, Anthony Davis set the record with 52 points.
Additionally, a fun statistic: Tatum is the first player in NBA history to score 50 or more points in all three games—the NBA All-Star Game, a playoff game, and the regular season.
Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers was also an important part of Team Giannis. He scored 40 points, made 15 of 25 shots, had 10 assists, and pulled in four rebounds. Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers also hit eight threes in the game, including the winning basket for Team Giannis. He scored 26 points in all.
James scored 13 points for Team LeBron before missing the entire second half. Jaylen Brown, Tatum’s Celtics teammate, scored 35 points on 16 of 27 field goal attempts to lead his group.
Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks and the big man Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers each scored 32 points.
Tyrese Haliburton, a guard for the Indiana Pacers who was playing in his first All-Star Game, made 4 of 6 three-point attempts and scored 18 points.
The fact that Mavericks star Luka Doncic, the NBA’s leading scorer at 33.3 points per game, scored just four points for Team LeBron was a surprise.
On Thursday night, the second half of the regular season will begin.
