The 2021 NBA All-Star game will likely feature the target score again, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.
The target score made Sunday’s NBA All-Star game in Chicago thrilling, with players on both teams taking the game a lot more seriously by complaining to the referees for fouls after made or missed baskets and also playing defense for a change in the world’s best pick-up game.
It is a “good assumption” the NBA will use a target score to end next season’s All-Star Game after experimenting with the concept for the first time Sunday, Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations, told ESPN on Wednesday in New York.
That is not set in stone yet, as league higher-ups have not fully debriefed since Sunday, Spruell said. But there is real momentum behind using the concept going forward at the All-Star Game.
Team LeBron — led by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James — defeated Team Giannis — led by Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Team LeBron won 157-155 on an Anthony Davis free throw that took Team LeBron’s score up to the designated target of 157.
The NBA came up with 157 by adding 24, one of Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers, to the leading team’s score after three quarters.
Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul, who serves as the president of the NBA Basketball Players Association, coached a team in The Basketball Tournament last year and grew fond of the “Elam Ending.”
Paul suggested it as one potential tweak for this year’s NBA All-Star game in meetings with the NBA earlier this season.
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