LeBron James is King As East Wins NBA All-Star Game

NEW ORLEANS — Could have been Ray Allen, who scored 13 points in the final 3:13. Might have been Chris Paul, who handed out 14 assists to go with 16 points and four steals.

Wasn’t either of them.

It was LeBron James taking the Most Valuable Trophy in last night’s NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans Arena.

Twenty-seven points, nine assists, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks, punctuated by a spectacular driving dunk to secure the lead for good for the East will do that.

"When they read off LeBron’s numbers, I didn’t know that he had done all that," East coach Doc Rivers said after the East recorded a 134-128 victory.

If Rivers didn’t know how close James, the shining star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was to a triple-double, neither did James.

"’No, I just wanted to win the basketball game," James said. "[The West] beat up on us pretty bad last year in Las Vegas, and as the East, we didn’t want to allow that to happen [again]. We wanted to try to win.

"We did a good job of executing in the fourth quarter. Ray hit some big shots, some of the biggest shots of the game, and he kept it flowing. We put the finishing touch on it, and it was a dunk."

There were a lot of touches on this one, including the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant playing just the first 2:52, then sitting out to protect the torn ligaments in his right pinkie

Then there was the game within the game, the breaking news that the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets had reconfigured their megadeal that apparently will allow East All-Star Jason Kidd to join the Mavs. The Mavs placed Trenton Hassell in the deal and arranged a sign-and-trade aspect with Keith Van Horn in place of Devean George and Jerry Stackhouse. The two teams were expected to have a conference call with league officials to get the deal approved.

That left TNT analyst Charles Barkley, in a back hallway of the arena, saying this deal wouldn’t necessarily make the Mavs the favorite in the powerful West.

"I would have said that if they had done it a month ago," Barkley said. "It’s up for grabs. But [the Mavs] weren’t going to win it the way they were."

Allen, a late addition as an injury replacement, was the evening’s leading scorer with 28 points, knocking down 10 of 14 shots from the floor, including five of nine from three-point distance. Three of those threes came in succession during his 13-point explosion.

"I was supposed to be in the Bahamas this weekend," Allen deadpanned.

Instead, he said his eighth All-Star Game "was probably for me the most relaxed, the easiest to participate in. It was fun. New Orleans, they put on a great show. And then the game . . . You guys [saw] the game. The game was definitely one of the more fun games I’ve participated in."

Factoring in his participation in the league’s day of service, helping to rebuild and refurbish the city in the post-Hurricane Katrina era, Allen said, "Overall, I would have to say it’s probably been my best All-Star Game so far."

The East led most of the game, by as many as 16, but found itself down, 122-119, on a fastbreak layup by Brandon Roy with 2:49 remaining.

The East scored 15 of the final 21 points.

"In the beginning, it’s like a honeymoon," Allen said. "Everybody’s trying to show off their shoes; Carmelo [Anthony] had a pair of shoes on, took them off, put another pair on . . . And then you throw the alley-oops, everybody’s getting back, everybody gets that second wind in them. And by the fourth quarter, everybody’s here for a reason; everybody has that same competitive nature. It kicks in and you want to win the game."

If James didn’t know what his numbers were, neither did Allen. All he knew was, he was ready to give whatever Rivers, his coach with the Boston Celtics, needed.

"I said, ‘If you need to play me, play me, but don’t worry about me being on the bench because I’m not going to be mad at you if you don’t play me,’ " Allen said.

Rivers, in fact, was on the verge of sending in the taller Chris Bosh to replace Allen and try to cope with the West’s bigger front line. Allen hit a three, and Rivers changed his mind.

"You’ve seen Ray, when he makes one, there’s usually two or three coming behind it," Rivers said.

James’ overall performance and Allen’s stretch run overshadowed the work of Paul, the New Orleans Hornets point guard playing in front of a hometown crowd. But Paul insisted he wasn’t thinking about being an MVP candidate.

"No, I was trying to win," he said. "I wanted to win. This being my first All-Star Game, I wasn’t trying to look to win the MVP or anything like that. That was the last thing on my mind because I don’t feel like I scored enough."

His biggest moment came at the start, when he and Hornets teammate David West addressed the crowd.

"[We're] two people that feel very strongly about bringing New Orleans back," he said. "When you go around and see people still homeless in those tents and still trying to make it . . . to talk to not only everyone here in the arena but the whole world and let them know New Orleans is back and it’s still a rebuilding process . . . that was something that I was very thrilled about."