MVP Chris Paul had 20 points and 15 assists while teammate Kevin Durant led all scorers with 30. The Celtics' Kevin Garnett did not score in 6:26 of playing time.
Despite decent looks like this, LeBron James only shot 7 for 18 Sunday in Houston.
By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
HOUSTON – Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant turned this NBA All-Star Game victory into an L.A. story.
Paul had 20 points, 15 assists and won MVP honors, Bryant blocked LeBron James' comeback attempt, and the West beat the East 143-138 Sunday night.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points and Griffin finished with 19, joining Clippers teammate Paul in creating Lob City deep in the heart of Texas.
"You just want to play fast. I like to throw the lob. I like to see guys hit 3s," Paul said. "When we're out on the court with all that firepower, why wouldn't you want to make passes? You've got KD filling one of the lanes, you've got Blake, Kobe on the wing. There's nothing like it."
James scored 19 points but shot only 7 of 18 after having no shooting troubles during the latter part of the season's first half. Carmelo Anthony led the East with 26 points and 12 rebounds.
"I think we played really good defense at the end of the game as a team," Durant said. "Kobe was really going with the ball. It's tough to stop LeBron, but he did his best. He was able to block a few of his shots. But CP did a really good job of keeping us in the game."
On Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, the All-Stars threw down plenty of jams reminiscent of his glory days.
The first dunk came 16 seconds in, Paul throwing a pass to Griffin as part of the West's 7-0 start. The West led after each of the first three quarters, though were never ahead by more than eight points through threes.
They finally pushed it into double figures early in the fourth fueled by former Oklahoma City teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but couldn't put it away until a late run behind the guys from the city of Los Angeles – who along with Lakers center Dwight Howard gave L.A. all but one of the West's starting spots.
Paul hit two 3-pointers, Bryant made a layup and his block of James led to Durant's dunk that made it 136-126. Griffin had one last forceful dunk to help close it out, throwing a pass to himself off the backboard and climbing high in his neon green sneakers to slam it home and make it 142-134.
Harden had 15 points in his home arena, where the sights of the game were on the floor and the sounds were at the rim – which shook repeatedly after thunderous dunks for most of the game before, as usual, players tried to make some stops down the stretch.
Players' sneakers were a variety of pastels and fluorescent colors that looked like they came right from Easter Sunday Mass, many clashing so badly with their multi-colored socks they may as well have been created by spilling out random paint buckets.
James and Dwyane Wade wore purple, and Griffin's neon look was also sported by the usually-not-so-loud Tim Duncan and Brook Lopez.
Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers rises for a ridiculous dunk as Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks runs for cover Sunday in Houston.
But the NBA's high-flyers sure could leap in them.
Durant slammed one down so hard at one point he stumbled backward after landing, appearing woozy. He came in as the career leader in points per game with 28.3 and may have won a second straight MVP if not for Paul's big finish.
Paul became the first Clipper player to be named MVP, becoming the third player to have at least 20 points and 15 assists in the league's annual showcase, joining a pair of Hall of Fame point guards in Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas.
Paul made 7 of 10 shots and went 4 for 5 from 3-point range. He sank two 3s in the fourth to help the West build their double-digit lead.
The Bryant-James duel down the stretch was a good one between the two players most often compared to Jordan.
"It was all in good spirit, man. It was just two guys that love to compete, love to go at it. So I had a lot of fun," James said.
Bryant finished with only nine points but had eight assists. Griffin shot 9 of 11 from the field and didn't miss until trying to violently throw one down a few feet away from the basket.
Indiana's Paul George scored 17 and Kyrie Irving 15 for the East.
Not everybody had it so easy. Chris Bosh shot two airballs in the first quarter and was booed, tossed up another in the second, and had Tony Parker dribble the ball through his legs on defense. He was even pulled down the stretch by his own coach, Erik Spoelstra, right after Bryant blew right by him for a layup.
Bosh finished 3 of 9. Wade had 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, the best performance of the three Heat players in the starting lineup.