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All-Star Match Leaves West WastedNBA's Elite Show Who's BossWASHINGTON, 10:56 p.m. PST February 11, 2001 -- Vince Carter turned the corner on the baseline, got past Kobe Bryant and then took off. Once in air, he did a 360-degree spin before slamming the ball through the basket. On a day of dunks, this was one to remember. So was the marquee matchup of two of the NBA's young superstars in Sunday's NBA All-Star game. "I was just out there having fun," Carter said. Kobe and Vince didn't guard each other the entire game. But watching Bryant in his bright yellow shoes challenge Carter and vice versa when they were face-to-face was a treat for the fans at the MCI Center. Bryant found out early-on that Carter was going to make him work. "When I caught the ball I told Vince, I said: 'Man, you are going to make me start playing for real,'" Bryant said. "Because he was pressuring me. And I kind of had it in cruise control a little because my shoulder was aching. I said, 'You are going to make me start going to the basket, back up, I'm trying to cool out over here. I'm trying to rest.'" Bryant finished with 19 points and hit three straight baskets in the stretch as the West tried to hold off an East rally. Carter and the East couldn't be cooled off in the final quarter, outscoring the West 41-21 to win 111-110. Bryant, who considered skipping the game because of a sore shoulder and elbow, had a chance for a final shot to win but instead passed the ball to Tim Duncan. Carter then blocked Duncan's shot to preserve the win. "I was just reading the defense. I wasn't thinking about anything else, not about the fans, not about the end of the game," Bryant said. "I had an opportunity at a shot, but I was thinking Tim had a better look. He was sitting there in the corner and I thought he was going to be able to catch it and shoot it, so I gave the ball up to him." Carter, who won the 2000 slam dunk contest but skipped this year's event because of a sore knee, didn't look like he was hurting. He had another spectacular windmill slam that brought the fans out of their seats. Carter, who finished with 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting, wasn't surprised Bryan didn't take the final shot. "He was heavily guarded," he said. Bryant also had seven assists Sunday, while shooting 9-of-17 from the field with some rim rattling dunks of his own. "The shoulder bothered me a little bit but it wasn't as bad as it was before the weekend started," Bryant said. "You can blame David Robinson for my shoulder aching a little bit. Because during a timeout, he went, 'They're doing all the dunks, come on Kobe you got to do a dunk, you got to do something.' And I went, 'OK.'"
Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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