East All-Stars race past West in record-setting offensive showing

Behind a 3-point barrage, the Eastern Conference All-Stars blew out the West in Indianapolis at the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.

The East set the record for 3-pointers and total points for an All-Star game en route to a blowout win, 211-186.

The Lakers pair of LeBron James and Anthony Davis took backseat roles on the night. LeBron James only played in the first half and finished with eight points, four rebounds and three assists in 14 minutes.

Anthony Davis saw more action, including closing the game, but was more than welcome to let others shine and finished with six points, eight rebounds and nine assists in 22 minutes.

Damian Lillard won Kobe Bryant MVP Award after scoring 39 points on 14-26 shooting, including hitting 11 3-pointers.

Pregame, LeBron noted he would not play extended minutes on the night as he nursed the ankle injury that has bothered him all season and forced him to miss the Lakers final game before the break.

In layman’s terms, LeBron basically was saying “I’m too old for this.” And he had the jokes to back that up during the game.

In his 20th go-round of this exhibition, you can’t blame him. And he didn’t mail it in entirely as he spent the opening minutes playing hard and actively trying, including a coast-to-coast dunk very early on.

Tyrese Haliburton was the star of the show early on as the hometown star connected on five straight 3-pointers to get the fans out of their seats.

Anthony Davis checked into the game midway through the opening quarter to play minutes alongside his teammate. LeBron’s final highlight of the night was a vintage tomahawk dunk before checking out after seven minutes.

AD hit all three of his field goals in the first quarter, including a smooth fadeaway mid-range jumper. Surprisingly, LeBron checked back in for the start of the second quarter and immediately threw a lob to Devin Booker for the dunk.

LeBron nearly brought the house down when Booker looked to return the favor, but the lob was thrown to 2012 LeBron and not 2024 LeBron and the alley-oop was not finished. LeBron would eventually get his alley-oop after D’Angelo Russell wannabe Paul George bounced it off the floor for LeBron to hammer home.

Damian Lillard found his flamethrowers and started lighting it up from range to begin to make his case for MVP during the second quarter. The hot-shooting East led 104-89 at the break after going 22-48 from range.

LeBron did not start the second half, signifying the end of his night. Steph Curry started in his place.

The West didn’t fare much better without LeBron as they did with him in the first half as the East pulled away and Luka Doncic...struggled to answer.

Anthony Davis did eventually return late in the third quarter and played through the end of the game. Fear not, fans, though as you could not have lower impact minutes than he played to close the game. Shootarounds probably have had more intensity to them than the final quarter on Sunday.

Karl-Anthony Towns kept playing hard on at least one end of the court to try to make it interesting but it never amounted to much despite his 50 points. The West All-Stars finished just 10 points shy of also breaking the previous record for points by one team in a game.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.