Chapter 258 Joint MVP

If Tang Tian knew what Durant was thinking, he would definitely curse him as an idiot.

The MVP is given to the winning side; scoring more points in a loss is meaningless.

Westbrook had the opportunity, so of course, he would pass.

Actually, he would pass to anyone else too. The reason it was always Westbrook was simply because the latter had a strong desire to attack and always appeared in the finishing position.

Tang Tian's passing reorganized the Western Conference's offense. With their overall strength advantage, they slowly stabilized the situation on the court again.

At the end of the first half, the Western Conference regained a double-digit lead with a score of 76 to 66.

Tang Tian had 18 points, 3 rebounds, and 7 assists in the first half, while Westbrook had a game-high 22 points.

During the halftime break, Tang Tian was chatting and laughing with Westbrook next to him.

Durant gnashed his teeth behind them.

He really felt like his girlfriend was being seduced by someone else.

Back in the second half, the Eastern Conference suddenly sped up the pace and started a frantic offense.

Coach Budenholzer was still tactically skilled.

This lineup without a center pushed the speed of the offense to the extreme.

Moreover, Gasol of the Western Conference wasn't the typical brute force type, and his dominance on both ends of the court wasn't as great as expected.

Plus, Curry continued to miss three-pointers.

Soon, the Eastern Conference tied the score.

Coach Kerr didn't react, just like in the first half.

He was now looking at the Eastern Conference's lineup, his mind racing.

Before the All-Star Game, the Warriors had suffered a wave of injuries.

The team's starting power forward, David Lee, suffered a serious injury and was expected to be out for about two months.

Lee previously averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds, and was the team's core offensive player in the paint.

Lee's absence caused the Warriors to suffer their only two-game losing streak of the season, leaving Kerr with a headache.

But looking at the Eastern Conference's style of play, he suddenly had a new idea.

The Warriors' Splash Brothers relied on their fluid three-point shooting, which often depended on the speed of transition from defense to offense, catching their opponents off guard.

If James of the Eastern Conference was replaced by Green, could the Warriors also play this fast-paced game without a center?

The situation on the court became deadlocked again.

Tang Tian then took the initiative to ask Curry for the ball.

This kind of fast transition from offense to defense was Curry's favorite, but his touch wasn't good, and the Eastern Conference's lineup was at a disadvantage when running.

Moreover, Coach Kerr didn't make any substitutions on the sidelines, which led to the current situation.

Since the head coach wasn't reacting on the sidelines, he, as the coach on the court, had to play a role and slow down the pace.

Although the outcome of the All-Star Game wasn't important, the Western Conference had so much more talent on paper than the Eastern Conference this year, and they would probably be heavily criticized if they lost.

So it was best to win if possible.

Curry also knew his touch wasn't good, so he gave the ball to Tang Tian to organize.

Tang Tian signaled Gasol to go to the low post, then passed the ball to him for a low-post isolation.

James was really defending in the low post, but Gasol was much taller than him, and the latter was still a technical player.

With a turnaround hook shot off the backboard, Gasol successfully put the ball into the basket.

The Western Conference took the lead again.

With the Western Conference scoring, the Eastern Conference couldn't transition quickly from defense to offense and could only play in the half-court.

James's drive to the basket was interfered with by Gasol, and Griffin grabbed the rebound.

The Western Conference continued to play inside when they got to the frontcourt.

Butler saw that James couldn't defend, so he contracted inside to double-team.

Gasol passed the ball back to Tang Tian. The pass was timely, and Tang Tian got an open three-point opportunity.

Tang Tian shot directly from outside.

"Swish!"

The basketball went in smoothly, and the Western Conference regained a 5-point lead.

Coach Kerr nodded thoughtfully.

From James's failed one-on-one defense in the previous possession, he began to consider how to solve the problem of low-post one-on-one defense; to the failure of double-teaming a big man like Gasol who could both score and pass, he thought of having fast enough help defense rotation.

No one expected that an All-Star Game with no bearing on the outcome would give birth to something called the "small-ball system" in Kerr's mind.

Coach Kerr didn't react on the sidelines, but with Tang Tian's control of the game, the Western Conference stabilized the situation again.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes into this quarter that Kerr stopped thinking, got up, and began to make substitutions.

Another five in, five out.

Before Tang Tian went off the court, he had already scored 8 points in this quarter, bringing his individual score to a game-high 26 points, and he also had 4 rebounds and 9 assists.

Both sides entered the bench phase, and Westbrook once again became the focus of the court. As a point guard, he really just did whatever he wanted with the ball.

By the time there were just over 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, his individual score had already exceeded 30 points.

Moreover, the Western Conference's bench lineup was much stronger than the Eastern Conference's, and the Western Conference's lead was now close to 20 points.

In the last few minutes, the starters from both sides returned one after another for the final decisive moment.

Curry's All-Star Game was cursed, but James shook off his cold touch from outside in last year's All-Star Game and hit two three-pointers in a row, giving the Eastern Conference some hope.

But Tang Tian and Westbrook of the Western Conference quickly hit three-pointers of their own, extinguishing that hope.

In the end, the Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 163 to 148, taking the victory.

On the Eastern Conference side, James continued his annual routine of scoring in vain, getting a team-high 30 points and 7 assists, Irving, who came off the bench, had 21 points, Wall had 19 points and 7 assists, and Butler had 16 points.

On the Western Conference side, Westbrook had a game-high 38 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists, Tang Tian had 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 11 assists, and Curry had 15 points and 7 rebounds.

After the game, the staff on the sidelines conducted the final MVP selection.

According to past practice, the person with the highest score would become the final MVP, and Westbrook's probability was very high.

But Tang Tian's performance was also very eye-catching, and just 2 years ago, Paul had 20 points and 15 assists, beating Durant, who had 30 points, to win the MVP.

So before the final result came out, everything was still uncertain.

After waiting for a while, Adam Silver came to the center of the court with the envelope containing the results. After he opened it, he announced the final winner of the All-Star Game MVP.

"The Most Valuable Player of the 2015 NBA All-Star Game is... Russell Westbrook and Tang Tian."

When Westbrook's name was read out, everyone had an "as expected" expression.

But when Tang Tian's name was read out after that, most people were a little dazed.

"They share the MVP honor."

Adam Silver added.

At this point, everyone understood.

This year's All-Star Game was quite eventful, and the Eastern Conference had two opportunities in the first and second halves to turn the tide.

If it weren't for Tang Tian's control of the game and Westbrook's continuous scoring during the bench period, the outcome would really have been difficult to say.

So from the perspective of understanding the Most Valuable Player, the roles of both of them were indispensable, and they should indeed share this honor.

Even in terms of data, the large double-double of 31 points and 11 assists that Tang Tian got was not inferior to the 38 points that Westbrook got.