We begin tonight with the best the NBA has to offer, wrapping up All-Star weekend in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The headlines heading in was Kobe Bryant and the West against LeBron James and the East...and that is how this one played out at Staples Center.

The score doesn't always count as much as the show in the All Star game. Dwight Howard slammed in an alley-oop pass for the East team.

But LA star Kobe Bryant answered with an thunderous reverse baseline dunk. The West began to pull away later on.

The West's Blake Griffin scored with the fans in Saturday's slam dunk contest and he finished a Deron Williams pass. The West ran out to a ten-point lead in the first quarter.

Atlanta Hawks all-star Joe Johnson hit from distance. He landed a three pointer for the Eastern Conference.

But watch this jam from Russell Westbrook. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard shows what the All-Star game is all about. He rattled the rim for the West.

And his teammate, Kevin Durant slammed another basket home. The West kept its double digit lead in the game.

Second half...the Eastern Conference got two points on the drive by LeBron James. James would score a triple double in the All-Star game.

Then came Kobe time. He slamed home with two-handed dunk off James, midway through third, West 87-79

Bryant followed with a three, the West made it 90-79.

The Lakers' star would shine in LA with a big finish. The West hit 100 points.

Fourth quarter...the East started a comeback. LeBron played a big role with a total of 29 points, including two on the dunk.

New York Knick Amare Stoudemire also had a strong All-Star outing. His layup made it a four point game.

James was solid with a driving score down the lane. The West All Star lead was down to two with one minute left in the game.

Pau Gasol got the biggest single basket of all...he cleaned up a Kobe miss during the final seconds. Final score: West All-Stars 148, East All-Stars 143. Kobe scored 37 points and equalled a record with his fourth All-Star game MVP award.

Kobe Bryant, 2011 NBA All-Star MVP, said, "No not really. You know I wanted to come out and play hard though. I feel like we all have a responsibility, we're voted in for what we do during the season which is play hard and when we come here, that's what the fans want to see. They want to see us go at it, they want to see us compete and that's what I try to do and that's what I try to tell my team mates to do."" What you saw tonight was just me being around young players. You know Westbrook. You want to know the influence of Blake look at all the dunks I had tonight. Just being around so many young players kind of gave me so much energy to see them bouncing around and lots of stuff. It just re-energised me for the night."

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