2025 NBA All Star Game recap: Stephen Curry raining 3s sparks Team Shaq over Team Chuck in tournament final

Shaq’s OG All-Stars raced out to an 11-1 lead in the championship game... and then came the break. A long break. It was one of the hot topics of conversation among the players postgame.

A timeout was called to allow for a commercial break at 11-1, but when the broadcast returned, it spent the next segment celebrating TNT (which was broadcasting its final All-Star Game) and the Inside the NBA Crew. Then, there was another commercial before play resumed.

Overall, the mid-game break lasted 18 minutes — one longer than the actual championship game’s running time (11:40).

“I think the toughest part, they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were kind of halfway through it,” Jayson Tatum said. “We were sitting down for 20 minutes, whatever it was. It was kind of tough to get back into the game after that.”

“The breaks, I guess, weren’t ideal,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I would rather play without breaks.”

The challenge for the league is that the new mini-tournament format was a difficult to predict, timing-wise for the broadcast, and with that came a lot of filler (and a lot of Kevin Hart). While TNT and its stars deserve to be celebrated, in the arena the long break — and other long breaks between games for musical acts and more — took away any flow to the basketball games. It’s far too early to say if this format returns next year, but if it does, the league needs to find a way to get more flow and more basketball on the court.

“The games are kind of short,” Jalen Brunson said. “I like the format. It’s something new, something unique. Maybe just score to 50, maybe.”

Stephen Curry was voted the All-Star Game MVP for the second time in his career.

Curry finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds across the two games and put on a show, having fun and hitting six 3-pointers.

Jayson Tatum had 21 points across two games for Shaq’s OG team, but Curry being named MVP in his own building seems fitting (Curry got 12 of the 14 votes).

The championship game was never in doubt after Chuck’s international players started out 0-of-10 from the floor.

Starting slow was especially devastating when the hometown star and unofficial All-Star Game host Stephen Curry was on the other team.

Curry and Shaq’s OG All-Stars cruised to a 41-25 win and are the All-Star Game champions. Jayson Tatum scored 15 on 6-of-7 shooting, while Curry finished with a dozen in the final game. That game had the unfortunate lack-of-intensity we have come to expect in All-Star Games.

All that said, Curry winning at home just seems fitting.

Victor Wembanyama is out there putting on a show — block on one end, 3-pointer on the other.

The score is 28-15 for Shaq’s OG veteran team. First to 40 wins.

This is what the Bay Area sounds like.

Chuck’s Global team — which had to sit and wait through the second game, then the musical break — has come out ice cold, shooting 0-of-10 from the floor (0-of-6 from 3).

That has Shaq’s OG team out to an 11-0 lead.

Jayson Tatum started out 3-of-3 from the floor for eight points for Team Shaq. And Stephen Curry did this:

The Chase Center is never going to be confused with the old Oakland Arena when it comes to crowd volume (it was named Oracle Arena for the Warriors’ peak years).

That said, the building is pretty quiet through this new format. First, that’s not uncommon for All-Star Games. The other part of that is a lot of downtime in the building, both for advertising on the broadcast and to cut to a TNT broadcast crew outside the building (where Draymond Green is getting paid to just put the league and the new format on blast for some reason).

The new format has led to a moderate level of defense and effort — better than in recent years, but not leading to a compelling product. At least not live, maybe it reads better on television.

It dragged out, but eventually, Shaq’s team of veteran All-Stars got the win against the Rising Stars, 42-35. It was Damian Lillard who slammed the door shut with a 3-pointer from Oakland.

With that, Shaq’s OG All-Stars advance to the championship game against Chuck’s global All-Stars.

Damian Lillard led Shaq’s team with 9 points, and Curry had 8. The Rising Stars played well, with the Lakers’ Dalton Knecht and the Suns’ Ryan Dunn with 8 a piece in the loss. The Spurs Stephon Castle added 6.

One of the knocks on the four-team tournament format the NBA is trying this season is that a couple of teams are not going to play long, just one game to 40.

“Yeah, it was a little quick. I would have loved to play a little longer,” said the Thunder’s Jalen Williams, making his first All-Star appearance. “Obviously this being my first time, I would like to just play longer. But you’ve got to win. This is the first time they’re doing [this format], so it’s not going to be perfect. But yeah, I wish we could just play a little bit longer.”

I can’t blame him for feeling that way.

Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard on the same team just seems a little unfair — especially for a game in the Bay Area.

You pity the Rising Stars players when Curry is doing this.

And then Damian Lillard does this.

Score is 20-15 Shaq’s OGs.

Team Kenny — the team of young All-Stars — was eliminated in their first game.

Part of that may have been due to the lack of Anthony Edwards, arguably the team’s best player. He was out, with Kenny Smith saying during the broadcast it was a groin injury. However, the well-connected Mark Spears of ESPN/Landscape is reporting it’s cold. Timberwolves fans should hope it’s a cold.

Because the world needed more Mr. Beast? Because the NBA isn’t doing enough with influencers?

Mr. Beast is at the All-Star Game with a Mr. Beast kind of stunt: A guy named Jaren was pulled out of the stands, and he had to make one 3-pointer before Damian Lillard made 3 to win $100,000 — and Jaren did it with a banked 3. Then he was mobbed by Shaq, Kenny and mascots.

After this, we get back to basketball.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked like an MVP and Victor Wembanyama looked like an alien.

Behind a dozen points from SGA — including the final five points of the game — Chuck’s global All-Star Team won the first game, advancing to the Finals with a 41-32 win (the games are to the target score of 40).

Wembanyama had six points and a couple of strong defensive plays, and another big, the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns, each added six points. Best play of the game: Jokic to Wemby alley-oop.

Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Tyler Herro each had six points for Kenny’s young stars.

Victor Wembanyama is out there doing his thing — blocking a couple of shots he had no business blocking (sorry Cade Cunningham), and his first bucket came on a dunk that only he could have done.

Chuck’s international team is up 30-27 in a race to 40 (remember it is a target score, which could make the ending interesting).

Charles Barkley went with a bunch of international players, but it was the American on the roster Karl-Anthony Towns, who hit a couple of 3s to put Team Chuck up 17-12.

That said, out of a timeout team Kenny and his young stars tied the game at 17-17.

Which player entered the area with the best fit?

Our vote: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the furs, but who do you got?

It’s time for some basketball.

The national anthems (American and Canadian) were performed beautifully. Oakland native and Grammy winner Raphael Saadiq came out with his band and rocked it while the players were introduced — and not surprisingly Stephen Curry got the loudest ovation — and the energy in the building is up, especially with Kevin Hart doing Kevin Hart things.

Now we have the first game of the game of the night: Shaq’s OG All-Stars (Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant but not the injured LeBron James) vs. the rising stars, led by the Spurs’ Stephon Castle and the Lakers Dalton Knecht. With LeBron out, we get no Laker-on-Laker action, but we get some Suns vs. Suns in Durant vs. rookie Ryan Dunn.

Let’s tip off the new format and see if it lives up to Adam Silver’s hopes.

It is a stacked lineup of Bay Area legends.

Pregame, Oakland native and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and record producer Raphael Saadiq will perform.

At halftime, DJ Cassidy will lead a special Bay Area edition of his “Pass The Mic Live!” starring E-40, Too $hort, Saweetie and vocal group En Vogue.

Mac McClung jumping over cars has inspired people.

Not just future dunkers, but also some current stars — Ja Morant hinted he might do it next year, and Giannis Antetokounmpo joined him.

“You see guys go out there and put on a show and you get motivated,” Antetokounmpo said Sunday, speaking to the media.

Morant also tried to recruit a couple of Dunk Contest legends to join him: Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon. That duo combined for one of the best dunk contests of the last 20 years.

It makes for fun headlines. I’ll believe they’ll do it when I see it.

Shaq’s OG, veteran-heavy All-Star team has suffered from one of the risks of having older All-Stars on your team: Injuries.

LeBron James said Sunday he would not play in the All-Star Game due to ankle and foot soreness.

“You won’t see anything for me tonight, unfortunately. I will not be in uniform tonight, still dealing with ankle and foot discomfort, so I will not be playing tonight,” LeBron said. “Unfortunately. I hate that, but I’m looking forward to seeing the format. This is the first year for it. I know we got a lot of great...they call us the OGs. That’s hilarious. We got a few guys with gray hairs, so that makes sense, but that should be fun.”

LeBron played through that in a couple of games before the All-Star break because it was the first game with Luka Doncic (both against Utah). He was not at All-Star Saturday in San Francisco, but that was not surprising as he wasn’t in Indianapolis on Saturday last season either, flying in on Sunday for the game.

LeBron, voted a starter by the fans for the 21st year in a row (an All-Star record) is averaging 24.3 points, 9 assists and 7.7 points a game while shooting 39.5% from 3 this season.

This year will be LeBron James’ 21st All-Star Game — every one of them as a starter. Unsurprisingly, both of those are All-Star Game records.

LeBron has stamped his name all over the All-Star Game record book: Most All-Star Game points in a career (434), the most field goals attempted (355) and the most field goals made (182, 51.3% shooting in All-Star games), most games played (becomes 21 Sunday), most minutes in a career (536), and most defensive rebounds (100).

Also, LeBron is one of only four players to have an All-Star Game triple-double. In 2011, he had 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists (the other three are Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade, and Kevin Durant).

The popular trio of former players on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” — Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny “The Jet” Smith — drafted the players into three teams of eight for the new tournament format.

While that draft came off as incredibly scripted and fake, it neatly set up storylines: Shaq’s team of veteran All-Stars (Curry, LeBron, Durant), Smith’s young stars (Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson) and Barkley’s team full of international players (Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama).

The first game in the tournament format is Shaq’s veterans vs. the Rising Stars winners — another convenient storyline for the league.

It isn’t popular with players, and fans are, at best, skeptical, but the NBA pushed ahead with a new four-team tournament format in a desperate attempt to inject defense and real competition into the All-Star Game. Adam Silver is on a quest to save the All-Star Game.

The new format divides the 24 All-Star players into three teams of eight, with those teams drafted by the “Inside the NBA” trio of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith. Let’s be clear: This “draft” came off as obviously staged to get pre-determined teams: Shaq’s team of veterans, Smith’s team of young stars, and Barkley’s group of international players (the best sign this draft was staged: When did Barkley become the big supporter of global basketball?).

The fourth team is “Team C” — with the Spurs Stephon Castle and the Lakers’ Dalton Knecht — the winners of Friday Night’s Rising Stars game.

Those teams are dropped a straight-up four-team tournament bracket with target score games. In the first two games, the teams will play first-to-40. The two winning teams then will compete in a championship game to 25.

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game takes place on Sunday, Feb. 16, with tip-off at 8 p.m. ET, and will be played in San Francisco at the Chase Center (home to the Golden State Warriors).

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game will be broadcast on TNT and can be streamed on MAX.