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East meets West in 60th annual All-Star Game

Feb 18, 2011 - 9:12 PM (Sports Network) - Hollywood meets the hardwood on Sunday at Staples Center when the league's best from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference clash in the 60th annual NBA All-Star Game.

Sunday's contest will be the record fifth time that the mid-season classic has emanated from Southern California, dating back to 1963 when legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach and his long-time stalwart Bill Russell led the East to a 115-108 win at the old Sports Arena.

The game returned nine years later in 1972, this time at the Fabulous Forum, when the Lakers' own Jerry West was named the game's MVP as the West won a 112-110 nail-biter. The All-Stars returned to the left coast and the Forum in 1983 with the East winning 132-123 behind the Sixers' Julius Erving, who was named MVP. Just over 20 years later, the West evened things in LA at Staples Center in 2004 with a 136-132 triumph behind then-Laker Shaquille O'Neal.

This year's version features a lot of familiar faces as well as some fresh ones on the western side.

Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who missed last year's game with a balky ankle, was this season's leading vote-getter in the All-Star Balloting program with 2,380,016 votes. The selection was Bryant's 13th consecutive and he now trails only West, Karl Malone and O'Neal for the all-time record of 14 straight nods.

Bryant, the youngest All-Star in NBA history in 1998, and the All-Star MVP in 2002 and 2007, and co-MVP along with O'Neal in 2009, will be joined in the Western Conference starting backcourt by the New Orleans Hornets' Chris Paul, a four-time All-Star that paces the league in steals (2.47 spg) while ranking fourth in assists (9.6 apg).

Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, the NBA's leading scorer, will make his first All-Star Game start in the frontcourt, alongside the Denver Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony and San Antonio's Tim Duncan, who will be playing in his 13th straight All-Star game and making his 12th consecutive start.

Duncan was selected to replace the injured Yao Ming (stress fracture, left ankle) of Houston at center, not a surprise since the veteran's mentor in San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, will pilot the West squad.

Pau Gasol of the two-time defending champion Lakers and rookie Blake Griffin of the Clippers highlighted the reserve selections for the West.

Joining Gasol and Griffin, the first rookie since Yao in 2003 to be named an All-Star, on the West are Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, the Thunder's Russell Westbrook, the only player in the NBA averaging at least 22.0 points, 8.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds, San Antonio's Manu Ginobili, Utah's Deron Williams, along with Minnesota double-double machine Kevin Love, who was selected by NBA commissioner David Stern as Yao's injury replacement.

On the Eastern Conference side, Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, the second leading vote-getter overall with 2,099,204, will handle the pivot for coach Doc Rivers. Joining Howard in the East starting lineup at forward are the Miami Heat's LeBron James, the 2006 and 2008 All-Star Game MVP, and the New York Knicks' Amare Stoudemire. Rivers' backcourt will feature the Heat's Dwyane Wade, last year's All-Star Game MVP, alongside the Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose, who earned his first All-Star game start and is the only player in the league to rank in the top 10 in both scoring (eighth at 24.5 ppg) and assists (ninth at 8.2 apg).

The bench will be very familiar to Rivers as it features 80 percent of the Celtics' starting lineup, forwards Kevin Garnett, earning his record-tying 14th straight All-Star selection, and Paul Pierce, along with guards Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. Rounding out the East squad are Atlanta teammates Al Horford and Joe Johnson, and the Heat's Chris Bosh.

In the 2010 annual event, Dallas native Bosh, then of the Toronto Raptors, hit two free throws with five seconds remaining, boosting the East to a 141-139 victory over the West before a record crowd of 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium. The attendance at Jerry Jones' palace just outside Dallas set a mark for the largest crowd to ever watch a basketball game.

Wade garnered MVP honors by scoring 28 points, recording 11 assists, six rebounds and five steals. James, who was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers at the time, added 25 points, while Bosh finished with 23 points and 10 boards.

Anthony had 27 points and 10 rebounds for the West, but his three-point try at the buzzer grazed the front of the rim as he was defended by Wade.

The starters for Sunday's contest were determined by the fans' votes, while the 30 head coaches in the NBA voted for the reserves in their respective conferences.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

The All-Star format is all about athleticism and the ability to excel in the spacing of an open floor. As you might expect, Bryant and James have dominated recent All-Star games, combining for four of the last five MVP awards, with Wade, another superlative open court performer, breaking that string in last year's game.

Since Bryant was out of the picture after earning his third career All-Star MVP back in 2009 in Phoenix and this year's game is on his home floor, you have to feel like he has an excellent shot of garnering yet another award. Home court always tends to mean a lot in these games since players like to feed the local favorites and fuel the energy of the crowd. So, also pay plenty of attention to Bryant's teammate, Gasol, as well as the Clippers' Griffin.

Durant is also worth mentioning since he remains the best pure scorer in the game and can fill it up faster than anyone else.

For the East, keep your eye on members of the Heat. James, who earned his second MVP in 2008 and could have also easily taken last year's award, is tailor-made for this type of environment as the game's best pure physical specimen. Meanwhile, Wade's athleticism and ability to finish is a perfect fit for this type of setting as evidenced by the 2010 contest.

According to an NBA.com fan poll, 30 percent of fans think James will take MVP honors, while hometown hero Bryant finished a close second at 28 percent and Durant netted 18 percent.

NOTABLE

- James and Wade are the first set of teammates to start an All-Star Game for the Eastern Conference since Wade and Shaquille O'Neal represented the Heat in 2007 in Las Vegas.

- Six international players were selected for this year's All-Star Game: Ginobili (Argentina), Yao (China), Horford (Dominican Republic), Duncan (U.S. Virgin Islands), Gasol (Spain), and Nowitzki (Germany).

- Bryant is seventh all-time in NBA history with 207 All-Star points and will have a chance to move past Elgin Baylor (218), Erving (221) and Bob Pettit (224) this year. The top three are Michael Jordan (262), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (251) and Oscar Robertson (246). James, meanwhile, is the all-time leader in scoring average for players who have toiled in three or more All-Star games at 23.7 points per contest.

- Allen, who just surpassed Reggie Miller to become the NBA's leading all-time three-point shooter, is also the top long-range marksman in All-Star history with 64, well ahead of Bryant, who is second with 48.

- The East leads the all-time series by a 36-23 margin. There was no All-Star game in 1999 due to the lockout.