Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant lead West to All Star Game Victory over East

The West defeated the East 152-149 at the NBA All Star Game behind strong performances from Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant and a bloodied Kobe Bryant.

Durant took home MVP honors after scoring 36 points and adding seven rebounds. Bryant had 26 points of his own despite a broken nose suffered during the game on a hard foul from Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade.

With those 26 points, Kobe passed Michael Jordan for total All Star Game points and now has 271 for his career.

For the East, LeBron James led the team with 36 points of his own, but turned the ball over late in the game and the East was unable to complete the comeback from being down 19 points at the half. Wade added 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to complete his triple-double.

The high-scoring game was a culmination of the All Star Weekend festivities that included San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker winning the Skills Challenge, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love taking home the Three-Point Contest and Utah Jazz’s Jeremy Evans being crowned Slam Dunk champion after dunking two balls at once.

While the participants in the Slam Dunk Contest did put on a show for the Orlando, Florida crowd, some are still hoping that future contests will feature some of the more prominent dunkers in the league like LeBron James and Blake Griffin.

For now, it was another great moment for the NBA All Star Weekend for plenty of the players to showcase their skills.
By: Brandon Williams Member of the Football Writers Association of America