![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Kawhi Leonard, playing in his native Los Angeles, was the night\u2019s standout performer \u2014 going against a \u201cpissed off\u201d Victor Wembanyama \u2014 but it was Team Stars who took home the championship in the fourth and final game. <\/p>\n
Stars, led by Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards \u2014 who claimed MVP honours \u2014 cruised to the title in a 47-21 win over Stripes, which boasted LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Jalen Brunson. <\/p>\n
Earlier, Leonard scored 31 points in under 12 minutes on a scintillating 11-13 shooting and 6-7 from three-point range as Team Stripes beat Team World 48-45 in their second game, with the evening also featuring buzzer-beaters. <\/p>\n
The Clippers star went toe-to-toe with Spurs phenom Wembanyama, who dropped 19 points on 6-8 shooting in his best efforts to match his counterpart. <\/p>\n
\u2018Wemby\u2019 couldn\u2019t hit a game-tying three-point attempt and \u201cdid not look happy\u201d walking off the court as World finished 0-2. <\/p>\n
And while the championship game was unfortunately uncompetitive in comparison to the previous three clashes, several NBA pundits considered the rejigged festivities \u2014 after numerous tries to get it right \u2014 a win. <\/p>\n
\u201c(The) final game didn\u2019t carry it through, but this format was a win this year,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Zach Harper said after the round-robin\u2019s completion. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a lot of competitive play for most of the night before one team went cold … It\u2019ll be interesting to see if it carries over to future All-Star Games. That\u2019s the key to it all. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to begin a trend, rather than be a blip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stripes\u2019 De\u2019Aaron Fox hit a game-winning three-pointer on the buzzer in Game 2 to beat the Stars, after a back-and-forth closing sequence that saw Edwards hit a go-ahead three just seconds earlier. <\/p>\n
Earlier in Game 1, Toronto\u2019s Scottie Barnes hit the game-winner from distance for the Stars, in what was the first of multiple devastating endings for Team World. <\/p>\n
Edwards and Maxey sparked the Stars over the Stripes in Monday\u2019s decider. <\/p>\n
Maxey scored nine points while Edwards and Chet Holmgren added eight each as young Stars talent overwhelmed the veteran-laden Stripes in the championship game at Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chose to compete today, and we came out on top,\u201d said Edwards.<\/p>\n
The Stars began the final with a 12-1 run, powered by seven points from Maxey, as the Stripes missed their first 10 shots.<\/p>\n
The Stars later added a 15-0 run for a 33-9 advantage, and the Stripes could not muster a rally.<\/p>\n
Donovan Mitchell had six points and NBA all-time scoring leader LeBron James, an All-Star for a record 22nd time, added five for the Stripes in the final.<\/p>\n
Instead of the usual two-team event, NBA stars played a tournament of four 12-minute games between two US sides and a World group of global talent.<\/p>\n
Concerns about lacklustre effort in past All-Star contests were eased in the new format, which produced hustle, defensive effort plus competitive spark and a high-energy hunger to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of people have been concerned about the All-Star Game, not seeing as much effort. Today we saw it,\u201d said former US President Barack Obama, who was seated at courtside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you get an international team against an American team, they want to compete — and you\u2019ve got some young guys I think want to prove something out here.\u201d <\/p>\n
World needed to beat Stripes in the round-robin finale to advance, but Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points, including the deciding three-pointer with 3.5 seconds remaining, for a 48-45 Stripes triumph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made my first one, kept on from there and they just kept falling,\u201d said Leonard, who hit 6-of-7 three-point shots. <\/p>\n
‘Disrespecting the game’ Perkins fires | 01:21<\/p>\n
In the round-robin opener, Edwards scored 13 points and Barnes sank the winning three-pointer in overtime as the USA Stars beat the World 37-35.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama had 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks in an intense contest. <\/p>\n
\u201cI ain\u2019t going to lie, Wemby set the tone,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cHe came out hard and we had to follow that. We had to pick it up and we did that.\u201d <\/p>\n
A tying Edwards three-pointer forced overtime at 32-32. With the first team to score five points winning, Edwards hit a basket, Wembanyama answered with a three-pointer and Barnes made the game-winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it got a little tight, the competition picked up, guys wanted to win,\u201d World\u2019s Norman Powell said. \u201cWe were going to compete every single possession.\u201d <\/p>\n
Game two saw more drama when De\u2019Aaron Fox sank a three-pointer at the buzzer to give USA Stripes a 42-40 triumph over USA Stars.<\/p>\n
An Edwards three-pointer gave the Stars a 40-39 edge until Fox answered from the left wing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou live for these moments,\u201d James said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big time play for us older heads… We know how to keep our heads and execute.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jaylen Brown scored 11 points and James added eight to lead the Stripes while Edwards and Cade Cunningham led the Stars with 11 points each. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The revitalised NBA All-Star format has proven a raging success as a superstar exploded against a \u201cpissed off\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[2095,20453,64,63,120233,111106,485,191553,800,4603,244941,120709,3231,1175,7216,7896,481,244939,590,93338,2041,2067,240589,39904,85,15647,52204,244938,2614,244940],"class_list":{"0":"post-483264","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-anthony-edwards","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-basketball-fans","13":"tag-basketball-game","14":"tag-california","15":"tag-championship-game","16":"tag-espn-inc","17":"tag-final-game","18":"tag-free-throw-dunk-attempt","19":"tag-inglewood","20":"tag-jack-jovanovski","21":"tag-kawhi-leonard","22":"tag-kevin-durant","23":"tag-lebron-james","24":"tag-los-angeles","25":"tag-mark-j-terrill","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-nba-all-star-game","28":"tag-north-america","29":"tag-northern-america","30":"tag-round-robin-tournament","31":"tag-slam-dunk-contest","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-standout-performer","34":"tag-tyrese-maxey","35":"tag-undeniable-verdict","36":"tag-united-states-of-america","37":"tag-zach-harper"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}