Steph Curry can’t save All-Star Game, but he can win it

SAN FRANCISCO — In an All-Star championship game already out of hand, Steph Curry decided to put a jolt into a dead Chase Center crowd.

Ever the showman, Curry pulled up from halfcourt and drained it. Finally, the crowd that sat through brutal stoppages and nonsensical basketball, had something to get out of their seats for.

Curry stamped a blowout victory with a trademark lookaway 3-pointer and by hoisting the Kobe Bryant All-Star Game MVP trophy.

For 16 years, Curry has sensed the moment and delivered, inspiring crowds and expanding the basketball imagination.

In Sunday night’s All-Star Game at Chase Center, there wasn’t a moment for him to rise to. He did so anyway.

Lifeless for almost the entire night, sitting through a commercialized production of performance smorgasbord, uninspired basketball, long stoppages and gimmicks, the Chase Center crowd at least headed for the exits with a memory of their franchise player in mind.

Curry scored 12 points in the championship, helping his Shaq’s OGs team to a 41-25 victory in the championship to win the first tournament-style All-Star Game by reaching the target score.

“It’s obviously our responsibility to come out, put on a show and I thank (my teammates) for helping me do that in Golden State, because a lot of history has happened out here,” Curry told the crowd and TNT audience. “But the competition and the camaraderie and the legacies that we all create is what it’s all about, so I’m happy to be a part of that celebration.”

Before Curry’s close, the most exciting action of the night was when a fan won $100,000 from Youtube star MrBeast for beating Damian Lillard in a 3-point shooting contest.

For Curry’s franchise-record 11th All-Star Game, he had a hand in tweaking the format. The league divided the selected All-Stars into three teams, with the Rising Stars champion joining them for a miniature tournament with games to 40 points. The changes were designed to revive an All-Star Game that had devolved because players stopped trying.

It was Curry’s weekend, and he ended it with a win. This was the Bay Area’s event for the first time in 25 years, and he’s its greatest son.

Curry strolled down memory lane at old Oracle Arena for Saturday morning practice, visions of gold and blue confetti falling for championships flooding back. There, he drilled a backwards halfcourt shot, igniting what had become one of the iconic NBA crowds of the century.

“Growing up in the game inside of these walls, the energy in this building that can come back just like that, I’ve enjoyed it to the fullest,” Curry said Saturday.

He hosted a party at the new Splash bar at Thrive City and visited some of the playgrounds his Eat.Learn.Play. foundation has refurbished in Oakland.

An hour before tipoff of the miniature tournament, Curry warmed up with Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard. Without a real game to play, he didn’t need to go through his typical routine. Nothing was typical around him — the upcoming target-score game against the Rising Stars champs, the swaths of fans overflowing onto the court, his Shaq’s OGs teammates.

On a roster full of future Hall of Famers, including LeBron James — who sat out — Curry got announced last. This was his party, and everyone knew it.

For much of the first game, a 41-32 Global Stars victory over the Young Guns, you could hear a pin drop in Chase Center. A subdued silence was only interrupted by Kevin Hart on the loudspeaker complaining about the game and a pickup-style emcee.

That certainly didn’t hype up the crowd. Could Curry?

The two-time MVP was immediately aggressive, sinking an effortless floater from the elbow on the first possession and then flipping in a 30-footer. Even still, there was nary a reaction from the crowd. Stoppages for various in-game entertainment activations interrupted whatever flow could’ve developed from a game that waxed and waned in intensity.

Curry scored eight points and Oakland native Lillard sank the game-winning 3 to lift Team OG to the finals, avoiding humiliation at the hands of the Rising Stars.

The All-Star championship tipped off after what seemed like endless commercial breaks and miscellaneous on-court performances. Curry tipped it off with a one-legged, one-handed 3-pointer, igniting an 11-0 Team OG run.

Jayson Tatum, trying slightly harder than almost everyone else on the court, drilled three 3-pointers and ended the game with a dunk.

On a low-energy night, Curry had the most aura. He’s still a box-office draw, even if the movie bombs.