Kobe Bryant is one trophy shy of becoming the NBA's only five-time All-Star MVP. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

ORLANDO, Fla. — The real All-Stars finally take center stage here on Sunday  night, and while analyzing the All-Star Game as if it were a serious piece of basketball is a bit of a fool’s errand, there are always a few intriguing stories to watch as the exhibition plays out. The dream, as always, is that the game gets close enough late for the players and coaches to get serious — for the effort level to ramp up, and for the coaches to choose a crunch-time five from among 12 elite players, including one or two of their own.

That happened only in a token fashion last year, when the Eastern Conference staged a rally to cut a game-long double-digit deficit to four with about three minutes left. But it’s hard to transition into crunch-time intensity after 45 minutes of no-defense, highlight-reel hoops, and I’m not sure last year’s game provided a single lasting memory. Let’s hope this year is different.

Some things to watch:

Kobe Bryant, gunning for history

There are more potential lineup quirks than usual in this game, and one such quirk is that the Western Conference has only a single shooting guard on its roster: Kobe. Coach Scott Brooks will surely play lineups featuring at least two point guards, and Kevin Durant can play the role of giant shooting guard on a team with six elite big men — though Durant is the West’s only true small forward. But the shots will be there for Kobe if he wants them, and as an egomaniac (in a good way) and “A+” student of NBA history, Kobe may want them on Sunday. After winning the game’s MVP award last year, Bryant stands with Hawks great Bob Pettit as the only players to win four All-Star MVPs. How badly does he want to stand alone with five?

PHOTOS: NBA All-Star Game MVPs

The league is so deferential to Kobe that Brooks will surely make him a part of the West’s crunch-time lineup if Bryant wants the job. Read More…

ORLANDO, Fla. — Here is the official Point Forward ballot for the 2011-12 dunk contest — a really close fight between four equally matched guys. There might not have been a flashbulb-memory dunk in here — no iconic image to take away — but there were at least a half-dozen solid slams. Picking a winner was tough, though Derrick Williams probably disqualified himself by going for the highest possible degree of difficult on his last dunk and coming up empty before surrendering.

1. Jeremy Evans

Jeremy Evans may have had the best dunk of the night when he slammed two balls at once. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The right dunker won, even though Evans’ first-round dunk, a run-of-the-mill reverse he completed after catching the ball in mid-air, might have been the second-worst of the 12 dunks tonight. It wasn’t innovative aside from the camera attached to Evans’ ear, and he took off from too far under the rim. Read More…

Kevin Love always wanted to be recognized for more than his rebounding and dirty work in the paint. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Kevin Love wouldn’t name names, but it was clear he felt a bit of vindication upon winning the All-Star three-point shootout — proof that his first NBA head coaches, two interior power forwards among them, were wrong to tell him not to shoot three-pointers.

“Everybody looked at me as a rebounder and a power player who did the dirty work,” Love said after Saturday’s contest. “But I always knew I was capable of more.”

The typecasting started with “certain people” when Love first came to the Timberwolves, he said, refusing to say exactly who he was talking about. Love was just 2-of-19 on three-pointers during his rookie season, when Randy Wittman and Kevin McHale split the head-coaching duties. He attempted 106 the next season under Kurt Rambis and 211 last season (Rambis again) before morphing into a high-volume three-point gunner this season. Love has already attempted 141 threes, about 4.5 per game, and the increased volume has hurt his percentage. Love is shooting 35 percent from deep this season, around the league average, but the respect defenses give him as an outside shooter opens up things for teammates.

Love said on Saturday he has noticed that opposing big men stick to him when he screens for guards on pick-and-rolls, leaving driving lanes open for Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour and J.J. Barea — the same kinds of lanes Barea used to get via pick-and-rolls with Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas. And when the Wolves involve Nikola Pekovic in the pick-and-roll instead, Love’s shooting still pays dividends, since he can take an opponent’s other big man out of the paint just by stationing himself on the wing beyond the three-point line — just as Nowitzki did last season on Tyson Chandler pick-and-rolls. “It just opens up things for everyone,” Love said.

But Love is a better rebounder and interior banger than Nowitzki ever was, and he never wants to lose that skill. He joked afterward on Saturday that Kevin Durant, the runner-up after the contest’s unprecedented second tie-breaker, had been ribbing Love for taking too many threes in recent weeks. “I’ll always want to be remembered as a power player,” Love said. He pointed out that both his mom and dad are pretty skinny, but then he was “blessed with the brawniness and burliness.” He has found a way to be both a shooter and a banger at once, and the Wolves are clearly better off. Read More…

San Antonio's Matt Bonner was snubbed again from the All-Star three-point shooting contest. (Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)

ORLANDO, Fla. — On Saturday afternoon, the National Basketball Players Association partnered with the charity Feed The Children to distribute food and personal-care items to more than 3,000 needy families in the Orlando area. SI.com showed up to watch the event and chat a bit with the union’s executive director, Billy Hunter, who addressed the end of the lockout, the theory that a compressed season has led to more injuries than normal (Hunter doesn’t buy it) and recent comments from Mark Cuban about league owners opting out of the new collective bargaining agreement at the first chance either side gets — in 2017 (Hunter called the comments “hot air”).

But with the three-point shootout just hours away, I couldn’t resist the chance to visit with Matt Bonner, once again an egregious contest snub despite shooting better than 45 percent from deep so far this season. I campaigned for Bonner to get in the contest last season, but all such campaigns have failed. I had to know why, and whether Bonner even cares. Here is an edited transcript of our conversation.

SI.com: The league just won’t let you into the three-point contest. Any theories as to why?

Bonner: Apparently I’m lacking in the coolness department. It takes me back to high school.

SI.com: Were you a geek in high school?

Bonner: I was definitely geek-ish.

SI.com: How so?

Bonner: Well, my penchant for math. I was on the math team. It started in elementary school, when I placed second in the city of Concord, New Hampshire, crypto tournament. Read More…

Andrew Bynum openly said the Lakers' system has obvious problems. (Kim Klement/US PRESSWIRE)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Media day at All-Star weekend is always something of a mess. The reporter-to-player ratio is probably 30-to-1, meaning there is something between a small crowd and a giant mob surrounding every player’s individual platform. Media members who want to talk hoops must compete for precious seconds with reporters who want to ask about video games or travel habits or anything Jeremy Lin-related.

(Speaking of Lin: As a few of us were strolling through a corridor on the way out of the hotel, a conference room door suddenly opened, revealing Lin and a mass of NBA people filming who knows what. I hope that guy gets some rest this weekend.)

All you can do is skulk around, wait for some space to open up at a player’s table, dart into that space and fire away with a question or two you have prepared. When a spot opened up just to Andrew Bynum’s right, I slipped into it and chose the diciest of the three or four Bynum questions I had prepped: “Is there anything to the notion that the Lakers’ offense gets too predictable in crunch-time?”

I expected a polite, boilerplate response. Instead, Bynum said this: “That’s like pointing out the obvious. It’s a problem.” The implications about Kobe Bryant and Lakers coach Mike Brown are clear, and so I asked Bynum if I had heard him correctly. “Yeah, it’s a problem,” he continued. “We have to find some new ways to get things done.”

Some other media day highlights as I skittered from player to player: Read More…

Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams is sure to put on a show in this year's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest. (Brace Hemmelgarn/US PRESSWIRE)

The new collective bargaining agreement increased the fees players get for participating in All-Star Weekend events, including the dunk contest, but the fee hike (surprise!) wasn’t enough to draw any stars into this year’s event, according to ESPN.com, which has the list of four participants. The names: Iman Shumpert, Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams and Paul George. Two rookies, one second-year player and one small forward who was basically out of Houston’s rotation a few short weeks ago.

The casual NBA fan will yawn, especially those who had hoped for a Blake Griffin encore. But many prior dunk contests have lacked a major household name and turned out as entertaining as any other exhibition. Role players and young guys are always looking to make their mark, and you can bet these four will break out some stuff they hope fans will remember for a long, long time.

This contest will also have Jeremy Lin, who has been cleared to work as a teammate facilitator for Shumpert, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reports. Lin may not sleep all weekend, as the NBA wisely seeks to involve him in every possible All-Star event, including the Shooting Stars competition, that thing you don’t really pay attention to as you patiently wait for the other events. They should use the couch Lin had been sleeping on until recently as an obstacle in the Skills Challenge, where players (usually point guards) dribble around cones, toss passes through tires and perform other basketball-related tasks.

Lin aside, all four of these guys can dunk. They are quick, athletic wing types (though Williams has played mostly power forward for the Timberwolves) who can combine explosiveness, speed and power. Paul George recently did this in a game, and Budinger, a former volleyball star, made my list last season of alternative participants the league should consider; watch how high he gets on this monster put-back against Boston. Read More…

Could this be Dwyane Wade's year for MVP, or will Derrick Rose beat him out? (Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

The exhibitions are over. It’s about time for the big boys to play. Here are some things I’ll be watching for in the All-Star Game on Sunday night (8 p.m. ET, TNT):

1. Will they actually try?

The talent on hand is ridiculous, and if things align right, this could be an all-time great All-Star Game. The most important variable is the way the game develops. During media sessions, player after player reminded reporters that the game  is “an exhibition” meant “for the fans” — code for, “Please don’t expect us to play defense or for this to resemble a normal NBA game.”

Read More…

James Jones beat out reigning champ Paul Pierce and three-point king Ray Allen in the final round of the All-Star three-point shootout Saturday. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES – Paul Pierce strode through the hallways of Staples Center, letting out a loud “Arrrghh,” jokingly calling himself the “silver medalist” and lamenting that the Celtics “didn’t bring home the hardware” in the three-point shootout Saturday night.

Pierce, who was loudly booed by the L.A. crowd before each of his two shooting sessions, clearly wanted the repeat.

But perhaps not as much as Miami’s James Jones wanted to win. And this was no charity win. After Ray Allen lit up the place with a strong 20-point performance in the first round, in which he made at least three shots on all five racks, I was worried we’d have a classic Home Run Derby outcome, where one guy blows everyone away in the preliminary round but peters out late, giving the title to someone who didn’t perform as well overall.

Not so. Jones matched Allen’s 20-point performance in the finals, and his two-round total of 36 topped that of Pierce and Allen.

And it meant a lot, Jones said afterward. Jones felt he was on the way to establishing himself as a reliable long-range shooter in the NBA after a solid 2007-08 season landed him a $23 million deal (since restructured) with Miami. But then Jones ruptured a tendon in his right wrist — his shooting wrist — and had to undergo surgery. He played just 76 games over the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

“It was the lowest point of my career,” Jones said. “I was starting to find my niche.”

He added this: “We’ve had our struggles with the Celtics in the past, but tonight the Miami Heat came out on top.” 

Jones has rebuilt his career this season, drilling wide-open looks as the beneficiary of all the attention defenses pay to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He is also a key cog in Miami’s unconventional lineups — small lineups featuring LeBron as the power forward alongside several bench players, and lineups that don’t include any traditional point guard. The looks are open, but not every “shooter” in the league could hit 42 percent of them and provide active and smart defense at the other end. Jones isn’t a crucial piece, but he’s a real contributor on one of the league’s best teams.

Saturday night was a nice personal moment for him. “It’s a redemption for me,” he said.

Some other thoughts from the All-Star event that has always been my favorite:

• Jones was incredibly consistent — he hit at least three of five shots on all five racks in the finals and on four of five in the opening round, though one of those was waved off because he stepped on the line.

Read More…

Ray Allen's and Paul Pierce's Guinness World Record for most three-pointers made in a minute was quickly broken Saturday. (Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — Media availability Saturday was even crazier than Friday’s sessions — twice as many reporters, and only 30 minutes total to scramble to as many of the 24 All-Stars as possible.

Some highlights:

• If you were watching NBA TV, I suspect it broadcast an attempt by Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to break the Guinness World Record for most three-pointers made by a duo in one minute. The shooters had to alternate shots, and they could only shoot once their teammate made a shot. Allen and Pierce made 13 in one minute, which set the record even though Pierce struggled early, missing at least four straight at one point while Allen waited to launch.

But of course that wasn’t it. The Western Conference team wanted a shot to break the record, and it trotted out Kevin Durant and Dirk Nowitzki to do it. The crowd, which booed the Celtics’ duo loudly, chanted for Kobe Bryant to join either Durant or Nowitzki, but the Lakers’ star did not oblige. He sat on the scorer’s table and watched.

Dirk and Durant finished with 15 and broke the record with at least 10 seconds to spare. They are just beautiful shooters to watch. One interesting note: Of the four guys who participated in this little exhibition, only Nowitzki opted to shoot from the corner. The other three shot from the wing, which is a lower-percentage shot but perhaps one that they are more used to taking in games.

• I asked Dwight Howard whether he was hoping the Magic would swing even a minor deal, if only to land him a backup center. He shook his head. “We have the talent to win it already.”

• An actual exchange I had with Russell Westbrook:

“The easy answer you guys often give is ‘hard work,’ but what do you guys need to do over the last 30 games to get your defense back to where it was by the end of last season?”

After a quick pause, Westbrook looked up and smiled: “Work harder.”

• Nowitzki rolled his eyes and smiled — in a good way — when I asked him about Caron Butler, and how the team deals with a situation in which one of its key players suffers what appears to be a season-ending injury but then suggests he might be able to return for the playoffs. Would it be easier if the situation were just a black-and-white thing, if the team could mentally just settle on the reality now that Butler is out for the season?

“We just don’t know,” Nowitzki said. “It’s a real question. But if he comes back, that’s great.”

Read More…

The Knicks reportedly upped their offer to the Nuggets by including Danilo Gallinari in the package for Carmelo. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images).

LOS ANGELES – All the buzz here, as you’d expect, is about the report from Marc Spears at Yahoo! Sports on Friday night that the Knicks have gone all in for Carmelo Anthony. The offer: Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Eddy Curry’s expiring contract and a first-rounder in exchange for Anthony, Chauncey Billups and filler (Renaldo Balkman and Shelden Williams).

Read More…