It's called having to face the West trio of Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett all at the same time.

	Kobe Bryant missed this dunk, but the West All-Stars didn't miss much else, hitting 61 of 115 shots from the field against the smaller East.

When the West finally pulled away in the final period to register a tougher than expected 137-126 victory, Shaq and Duncan shared co-MVP honors, but Garnett could easily have been mentioned as well. The three giants combined for 70 points and 33 rebounds to overpower the smaller East squad.

"You know, there's nothing much you can do," said Hill, who had to cover Garnett and Duncan at times and give away about half a foot to each. "I yelled Kevin's name one time hoping to stop him, I yelled real loud, but it didn't work."

Sorry, Grant, it takes a little more than that to distract one of the best players in the game. Hill and the other East starting forward, Vince Carter, had tough matchups all night. Glenn Robinson didn't cover Garnett or Duncan much, but he had his hands full with Rasheed Wallace. And then there was Chris Webber to deal with as well.

"I tell you one thing (that trio together) would se the record for wins," East coach Jeff Van Gundy lamented. "They may lose, I just don't know to who. I could play guard for that team and win big."

The West said it would try to exploit these matchups and it did, pounding it inside early and often. Duncan and O'Neal had offensive rebounds in the first minute and Garnett coverted a tip in to make it 4-0. Meanwhile, Carter scored the first four East points on fastbreak dunks. It was a different philosophy for each team.

Duncan would end up missing only two of his 14 shots, and he wasn't attempting jump shots. He also grabbed seven offensive rebounds. O'Neal and Garnett combined for another seven offensive rebounds and Webber added three more. The East would end up outrebounded on the offensive boards only 21 to 15.

"Tim grabs a lot of rebounds and Shaq has that power game, I knew this was going to happen," Mutombo said. "And I was thinking about Kevin getting MVP, too, but it didn't happen for him. But he'll be back."

Yes, Garnett will be back and so will the other giants, meaning that Hill and Carter and other East small forwards -- that's small as in the position and small in height -- either need to start growing or develop more guys like Dale Davis, who did their best under trying circumstances. The matchups didn't make things easy, and the East didn't have a big team on the bench either.

At halftime, there were three players in double figures in scoring, and by now you should know who they were. But despite the heroics of the West's three-headed monster, the East was up in the final minute of the third quarter. But in the fourth Duncan scored six points and Garnett added four, helping the West go on a game-winning run.

"Well, it's not that you have to stop one guy," Mourning said. "They had a bunch giving us trouble, but we played hard and did the best we could. That's what it's really all about. We had fun out there."

Duncan, Shaq and the Bay Area point guards had a good time as well. Jason Kidd was on his way to threatening the record for assists in one of these games until he slowed down in the second half. He and Payton combined for 22 assists.

"Three seven footers, rebounds in the East were scarce," Carter said. "We had to cherish it and make it count on the other end. And it didn't happen much."

The East said it would try to run and they did. Allen Iverson, playing the point on a team without any point guards, took the most shots on the East by five more than anyone else, and scored a game-high 26, 11 more than the next teammate. But he also had nine assists, and could have had a bunch more if Carter and Jerry Stackhouse, aamong others, had finished off some of the wild alley-oops he was trying to facilitate.

"Everybody's going out there and basically putting on a show for the fans," said Eddie Jones, who scored 10 points. "The fans want to ooh and aah, they want to see all that stuff. That's why we were trying to push it and not get caught with those guys. They were getting a lot of offensive rebound opportunities. And in the West the big guys are extremely quick and powerful."

The East might feel a little better for future All-Star games if the West frontline was old. But it wasn't David Robinson and Karl Malone doing the damage. In fact, the Admiral and the Mailman combined to play only 10 minutes, for different reasons. Malone really didn't want to play, and Robinson hurt his shoulder and was sat down by Phil Jackson, who apparently didn't want Spurs coach Gregg Popovich angry at him.

But Duncan and Garnett are each all of 23 years old, so they'll be back a bunch more times. So will Hill and Carter. And we'll be talking about the same matchup problems for years to come.