LeBron James, Stephen Curry lead Team LeBron in 163-160

LeBron James who had two stints with the Cavaliers back in 2003 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018 returned to his hometown. He played his game against Team Durant on the 71st edition of the NBA All-Star Game that took place at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday night with a 163-160 win for Team LeBron.

James shot the buzzer-beater that gave his team the 3-points lead and earned $450,000 for the Kent State I Promise Scholars Program.

The stars are in the building!

2022 #NBAAllStar Game: 8:00pm/et on TNT & TBS 🌟 pic.twitter.com/Gw4eOvJFzJ

— NBA (@NBA) February 20, 2022

Recap

Just when the score was 161-160, Team LeBron needed one more point to secure the victory. James received the ball and was backing down Zach LaVine. The 37-year-old took a step back and shot the ball up toward the net over LaVine and a charging Joel Embiid. He scored.

This has been the fifth straight year LeBron has captained and the second year the team faced Team Durant.

Team LeBron also defeated Team Durant with 170-150 last year in the Atlanta All-Star Game. Unfortunately for team Durant, Sunday night is another night for King James’ team.

LeBron ended his night with 24 points, eight assists, six rebounds, three steals, and a block in a team-high 36 minutes. Playing with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, James admitted that it was a great achievement.

“I couldn’t have dreamt it. I could not have dreamed of that moment any better than the actuality that just happened… where I grew up here in Akron, Ohio,…, we used to watch the All-Star Game,” James said, via ESPN.

“I remember 25 years ago we were 12, 11, wishing that we had the opportunity or the means to come up to Cleveland and see some of the greatest basketball players of all time because they inspired us so much.”

In the ASG, the four-time NBA champ drafted starters who include Milwaukee Bucks #34 forward, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Golden State Warriors #30 guard, Stephen Curry, Chicago Bulls #11 guard-forward, DeMar DeRozan, Denver Nuggets #15 center, Nikola Jokic, all of four are former MVPs.

LEBRON GAME WINNER 🔥 pic.twitter.com/iNeZJoi61W

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) February 21, 2022

Stephen Curry wins MVP

Though LeBron shot the final goal, Stephen Curry was a dropping dime in the game and also deserve the spotlight. The three-time NBA champion led Team LeBron with 50 points which are the second-most in All-Star Game history and hit 16 three-pointers, setting a new All-Star record which was originally nine three-pointers made by Paul George in 2016.

It caught the attention of the Golden State Warriors on Twitter. “STEPHEN CURRY ARE YOU KIDDING?” GSW tweeted.

In the third quarter, the eight-time NBA all-star has 13 triples for 39 points on 13-of-19 shooting. With 2:25 on the clock, he made another two making his 15th three-points.

With his performance, the four-time All-NBA first team earned his 2022 Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP Award.

“Obviously I got the MVP; I played well the whole night. (James) hit the game-winner. All the history of our series and the Akron ties, and all that kind of going into how the night went, so it was pretty — can’t really draw it up any other way,” Curry said.

With a performance like this, perhaps LeBron would really like to keep Steph in the next All-Star Game if he is the team’s captain again.

LeBron James

LeBron Raymone James Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Nicknamed “King James”, (wikipedia)

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. (wikipedia)