2014 NBA All-Star Game

Result

MVP: Kyrie Irving

Box score

MVP: Kyrie Irving.

Bench (10+ points): John Wall (12)

Bench (10+ points): Chris Paul (11), Anthony Davis (10)

Game context

The 2014 All-Star Game, played February 16 at New Orleans's Smoothie King Center, was a record-shattering offensive display, with the box score eventually credited with breaking eleven separate All-Star records by various counts. Kyrie Irving, then a 21-year-old Cleveland Cavaliers guard, delivered the signature performance of the night, scoring 31 points and dishing 14 assists to earn his first career All-Star MVP award and help snap a three-game East losing streak in the event. Carmelo Anthony added 30 points for the East and set a game record with eight made three-pointers, part of an East team that shot the ball at an unusually high level throughout, finishing with a 163-155 win that stood, at the time, as the second-highest-scoring All-Star Game ever played. The West countered with its own scoring fireworks: Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin each finished with 38 points, falling four short of Wilt Chamberlain's single-game All-Star scoring record of 42, set more than five decades earlier in 1962 — a mark that had proven durable even as the game's overall scoring pace continued climbing through the 2010s. The combined offensive explosion from both ends of the floor reflected a broader trend that had been building for several years: All-Star Games were increasingly turning into high-possession, minimal-defense showcases, with players prioritizing highlight-worthy offensive plays over any pretense of competitive defensive effort, a dynamic that would eventually provoke the league office's search for format changes later in the decade. Frank Vogel of the Indiana Pacers and Scott Brooks of the Oklahoma City Thunder coached the East and West respectively, both representing conference-leading teams entering the break that season — a reminder that, at this point in All-Star Game history, head coaching assignments were still tied to regular-season conference standings rather than any captain-based selection process. LeBron James led all players in fan voting with 1,416,419 ballots, continuing his run as the game's most popular attraction. The Smoothie King Center's relatively modest capacity produced an attendance of 14,727, smaller than several of the larger stadium-hosted editions from recent years, but the game's record-setting offensive pace ensured it remained one of the more talked-about editions of the mid-2010s stretch, a period increasingly defined by ever-escalating final scores as the traditional East-West format approached its later years before the 2018 shift to the draft format. Irving's MVP performance also carried personal significance: it came in his third All-Star selection and cemented his reputation as one of the league's most dazzling individual scorers and ball-handlers even as the Cavaliers themselves remained a lottery team that season, several years before his own trade request and the arrival of LeBron James back in Cleveland would transform the franchise's fortunes.

Sources

• Basketball-Reference — NBA All-Star Game History
• Basketball-Reference — NBA & ABA All-Star Game MVP (Kobe Bryant Trophy)