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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A stunning fourth-quarter comeback led by
Allen Iverson. A thrilling final-minute shootout between Stephon
Marbury and Kobe Bryant.
|  | | Kobe Bryant wanted to rest his sore shoulder, but he played 30 minutes and had 19 points and seven assists. |
The ball in Bryant's hands for the last shot. A pass that no one
expected. A last-second miss. A postgame celebration worthy of
June.
Yes, it was quite an All-Star Game.
Iverson, Marbury and their Eastern Conference teammates
transformed what looked like a blowout loss into an improbable
111-110 victory Sunday in a performance befitting the 50th
anniversary of the game.
"It was like a championship game out there," Dikembe Mutombo
said. "I've been in the All-Star Game the last seven years, and
I've never seen anything like this."
It was the kind of game that might stop people from bashing the
NBA as boring, or dismissing the East as far weaker than the West,
the kind of game that might make the casual fan appreciate the
heart and determination of some of the younger stars trying to
seize the spotlight in the post-Jordan era.
Mostly, it was the kind of game that any fan of any sport would
prefer to see -- a riveting one.
Iverson scored 15 of his 25 points in the final nine minutes,
and Marbury hit two 3-pointers in the final 53 seconds as the East
came back from a 21-point deficit.
Bryant, the NBA's leading scorer, could have taken the last
shot. Instead, in a shock to everyone sitting in the building and
watching on television, he threw a pass that resulted in a
last-second miss by Tim Duncan.
"Everybody was saying we couldn't win because of our size. It's
not about size. It's about the size of your heart," Iverson said.
"Coming into the fourth quarter, we were all sitting on the
sidelines saying 'Why not us? Why can't we be the ones to come back
from a 19-point deficit (after three quarters) in an All-Star
game?' "
Turns out they could.
While presenting the MVP award to Iverson, NBA commissioner
David Stern, with a sly grin on his face, told Iverson that great
basketball "can be wrapped -- if you pardon the expression -- in
very small packages."
The comment was a clever reference to Iverson's height -- he is
an inch or two shy of 6 feet -- and Iverson's rap album, which was
criticized for its lyrics and led to a meeting with the
commissioner.
Iverson, who starred collegiately in this city at Georgetown and
had a large contingent of family and friends in the arena,
presented his MVP trophy to his mother.
"My family, my friends, everybody that's been with me through
my struggles and pain knows it's a tribute," Iverson said. "I
think it's going to be beautiful for years to come because every
year it seems like we get somebody else with a different kind of
God-given ability to add to this league."
The East trailed 95-74 with nine minutes left after the West
dominated the first 39 minutes behind its superior size. It
appeared the game would come out looking like a mismatch that would
back up all the Western Conference superiority theories that have
been thrown around so frequently this season.
But the East started pecking away, and Iverson walked over to
the scorer's table during a timeout and asked if anyone wanted to
wager whether the East would make a comeback.
That's exactly what the East proceeded to do, with Jerry
Stackhouse and Vince Carter making 3-point shots that were followed
by a three-point play by Iverson to cut the West's lead to 100-96.
Iverson scored the East's next two points from the line, and
Tracy McGrady tied it on a putback with 3:10 left.
"We had every reason to make this like a regular All-Star Game
and lay down and stop playing, and it didn't happen," East coach
Larry Brown said. "I had no idea we could come from behind. It was
a wonderful ending for us."
Iverson scored the East's next five points, and a chant of
"M-V-P! M-V-P!" was heard after his two foul shots gave the East
a 105-104 lead.
But that chant might have revved up someone else, instead.
Someone named Bryant.
In a down-the-stretch performance reminiscent of his play in the
Lakers' Game 4 overtime victory over Indiana in last year's NBA
Finals, Bryant kept getting the ball and putting it in the basket.
His short jumper made it 106-105, and his 20-footer gave the
West a 108-105 lead with a minute left. Marbury, ecstatic over
making his first All-Star appearance, tied on a 3-pointer with 53
seconds left.
Bryant answered right back with another jumper, but Marbury did
him one better with another 3-pointer that gave the East a 111-110
lead with 28 seconds left.
The West set up for a final shot after inbounding with 10.9
seconds left. Bryant got the ball, but with everybody in the
building expecting him to shoot -- his injured teammate Shaquille
O'Neal was probably certain of it -- Bryant faked Marbury off his
feet and then threw the ball to Duncan for a short shot that missed
just before the buzzer.
Carter appeared to get a piece of the ball on Duncan's final shot attempt.
"I was actually expecting him to shoot," Duncan said. "I was
wide open, he got me the ball and I should have finished it. It
just didn't go down. It was a great final four minutes."
Said Bryant: "I was reading the defense, I was not thinking
about anything else. Tim had a better look."
Prior to that, it was almost an embarrassment for the East.
The East fell behind 11-0, committed 10 turnovers in the first
quarter and seemed incapable of stopping any of the big men from
the West.
The starting frontcourt of Duncan, Chris Webber and Kevin
Garnett finished with 14 points apiece, although Duncan was
scoreless and Webber and Garnett had only two apiece in the fourth.
Iverson finished with 25, Carter had 16 and Ray Allen 15.
Mutombo grabbed 22 rebounds.
Bryant led the West with 19.
"To win the game at the end of the game the way we did after
being down by 21 showed a lot of heart," Marbury said. "To be
able to hit some big shots at the end of the game and help us win
it was a great chapter. It was beyond my dreams."
Despite the lopsided first quarter, there was an early defensive
intensity of the type seldom seen in All-Star Games. Tracy McGrady
swatted away Bryant's first shot, a jumper, and Duncan retaliated
by rejecting a dunk attempt by McGrady.
But while the West quickly recovered by pounding the ball down
low, the East kept up its mistake-prone ways and errant outside
shooting to such an extent that it was 11-0 by the first commercial
break.
A Webber-to-Garnett alley-oop play made the score 15-2, and the
West took a 30-17 lead into the second quarter thanks in large part
to 10 turnovers by the East.
The East started to run more in the second quarter with Ray
Allen scoring nine of their first 11 points. Carter spun
360-degrees in the air -- just like he did in last year's dunk
contest -- for a dunk that made it 45-36 with five minutes left in
the half.
Carter converted a three-point play with 2:27 left in the half
to make it 49-44, then slammed home a crowd-pleasing windmill dunk
that made it a three-point game.
The West's Jason Kidd hit a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner
before sinking a shot from behind midcourt at the halftime buzzer
to make it 61-50.
Bryant bounced an alley-oop pass to Garnett off the backboard
early in the third quarter for a one-handed slam that gave the West
a 69-54 lead, and Antonio McDyess closed the quarter with a follow
slam to give the West an 89-70 lead entering the fourth.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Western Conf Clubhouse
Eastern Conf Clubhouse
Carter-Bryant matchup a slam for All-Star fans
Iverson has all the Answers to rally East, win MVP honors
NBA All-Star Game great ... but TV ratings aren't
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Allen Iverson and his eastern conference teammates know it's all about the heart.
avi: 2756 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Allen Iverson likes the future of the NBA.
wav: 205 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Kobe Bryant explains why he passed up the final shot of the game.
wav: 165 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Vince Carter and his Eastern Conference teammates were serious about beating the West.
wav: 74 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Eastern Conference coach Larry Brown felt the game was great for the league.
wav: 174 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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