All-Star Game Recap (Photos and Highlights)

It was an exciting night in Houston, as there were many stars present during the All-Star game. Everyone from Alecia Keys, to Jay-Z, to all the big basketball stars like Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, you would see someone famous.

AP Photo/Eric Gray

You can watch the West's introduction here and the East's introduction here.

Chris Paul was the game's MVP tonight, posting twenty points, fifteen assists, and four steals - leading to the West's 142-138 victory over the East, for the West's third consecutive win . He connected several times to his fellow LA Clippers teammate Blake Griffin, who would then slam it down in a spectacular fashion.

Griffin had 19 points on 9-11 shooting himself, mainly because most of his shots were him flying into the air and then slamming the ball down into the rim. Blake Griffin was standing down the side line when Chris Paul embarrassed Chris Bosh with a through the legs cross over that led to a nice lay-up.

When Chris Paul was asked by David Aldridge why he put the moves on Bosh the way he did, Paul responded "Me and Tony(Parker) was just talking about it. The way he's guarding us, that's the only thing that you can do." - "I mean he's jamming you up so close, that's the only way you can get by.". Chris Paul certainly showed Bosh that he couldn't guard such a dynamic guard out on the perimeter, and Tony Parker would end up doing the same exact move - which would lead to a frustrated Bosh giving him a hard-foul. You can watch the Boshasaurus rex get his head spun here.

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Chris was asked after receiving the All-Star game MVP what it means to play a traditional styled point guard type game. He responded "Man, that's deep.  I didn't think about it that much.  I think for me in games like this, like I said, it's up tempo, it's fast paced.  You just want to play fast.  I like to throw the lob.  I like to see guys hit threes, when we're out on the court with all that fire power, 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."

AP Photo/Bob Donnan

Kevin Durant had a game-high 30 points and 6 rebounds in tonight's game, the year after which he received the All-Star game MVP - and was hoping to repeat again this year. He took twice as many shots (24) as anyone else on his team, the next closest being former team mate and fellow All-Star James Harden(13) and his good buddy the Honey-Badger who took 13 as well. You can watch one of Durant's monster slams here.

When Kevin Durant was asked to describe what it was like to play with James Harden again, he responded "It was fun.  Playing with him today made me miss him a little bit." - as they played a combined 17 minutes together in the 4th quarter. "I'm happy he was the AllStar, especially in the city he plays in.  It was a lot of fun.  I didn't want it to be over.  It's always great playing with all these guys.  They make it fun.  It's a blessing being here."

USA Today! Sports/Bob Donnan

James Harden was the unofficial host of this weekend's festivities, playing for the Rockets since the start of the 2012-13 season. Harden was asked how he felt about Kevin Durant's comments on him missing playing with James. "He just told me he missed me in the locker room again.  I miss those guys, as well.  Just being with them every day, when you leave somewhere, you definitely are going to miss them.  This weekend was good for us just to see each other and catch up on good times". Harden posted 15 points on 6-13 shooting with 6 rebounds and 5 steals in the contest.

It was James' first weekend as an All-Star, so of course it would be a special series of events for the rising Rocket shooting-guard. He was asked how it was a special weekend for him and how he felt about it all. "It was a very special weekend, it being in Houston.  All the fun times, laughs, NBA Cares events, Saturday night festivities, all the appearances, meeting different people and then just the game tonight summed it up."

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Kobe Bryant was rather quiet in his 15th All-Star appearance, scoring just 9 points to go along with his 8 assists - but his highlight of the night was the one-one-one defense he played against he Lebron James in the fourth quarter, completely shutting him down and holding him to just 1 point on 0-4 shooting, and denying him with a nasty block late in the fourth. - VIDEO

Lebron had 19 points on 7-18 shooting and 5 assists on the night, being pretty dominate through the first three quarters. When asked what his thoughts were on tonight's game, he said - "It was fun. Try to give yourself a chance to win, but at the end of the day we come here for the fans and it was fun to be out there."

Lebron didn't seem to have too much fun in the fourth quarter though, going 0-4, but that didn't seem to bother him too much after the game as it was all smiles and laughs. Seeing how he's coming off an league-MVP, Finals Championship/MVP, and an Olympic Gold Medal - He's probably still on that high a little, but going into the second half of the season and into the playoffs, expect him to refocus. He response to being asked on how he felt about Kobe Guarding him in the 4th, he responded - "No, he does it all the time. I am absolutely not surprised. It was all in good spirit. It was just two guys who love to compete, love to go at it. It was a lot of fun."

The two squads took a combined 71 three-pointers on the night, only making 26 of them, but it was the monster dunks that had the crowd going. You can watch the top 10 best plays of the night here.