NBA stars dazzle in thrilling All-Star event

HOUSTON - Western Conference were crowned All-Star Saturday Night champions after they beat the Eastern Conference 140-125 in a thrilling night of action during All-Star weekend in Houston.

Sunday, February 17, 2013
Toronto rookie Terrence Ross beat defending champion Jeremy Evans to win the slam-dunk contest. Net photo.

HOUSTON - Western Conference were crowned All-Star Saturday Night champions after they beat the Eastern Conference 140-125 in a thrilling night of action during All-Star weekend in Houston.In a new format for the evening, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference went head to head over the four events and Terrence Ross from Toronto Raptors won the prestigious Slam Dunk Contest at the end of an entertaining evening.In each of the four events, the total score/time for each conference were added together in the team round and the best team would receive points which counted towards the overall total. The best performer from each Conference would then advance to the championship round to determine the winner of the event.The night started with the Shooting Stars Challenge in which each conference had two teams made up of an NBA star, an NBA legend and a women’s NBA player.The Western Conference went first and Team (James) Harden started proceedings by completing all six stations in 37.9 seconds before Team (Russell) Westbrook blitzed the course in an impressive 29.5s, giving the West an overall time of 1:07.4.The Eastern Conference couldn’t respond as firstly Team (Chris) Bosh took 50s to complete the six stages before Team (Brook) Lopez recorded a leisurely 1:07, giving the East a total time of 1:57. The West scored 20 points as a result of having a better overall time before the best team from each conference, Team Bosh from the East and Team Westbrook from the West, advanced to the championship round.Team Bosh went first and they set the standard with 1:29, which looked to be too slow. But, in response, Team Westbrook stalled at the final stage and couldn’t complete the course in time. Team Bosh were crowned Shooting Stars Challenge winners and they earned 10 points for the Eastern Conference in the process.Agencies