Scottie Barnes’s buzzer-beater kicks off NBA All-Star Game

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Scottie Barnes attempted just one shot in his first mini game during Sunday evening’s NBA All-Star Game tournament, but boy did it count.

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The do-everything Toronto Raptors forward/guard, playing for the USA Stars team, hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer against the World team for a 37-35 victory in the first of four games at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.

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He then added the punctuation to a dominant tournament final victory for the Stars, hammering down a dunk with 0.9 seconds left to cap a 47-21 victory over the USA Stripes team featuring teammate Brandon Ingram.

Barnes finished with 11 points in his three mini-game appearances, while Ingram was held off the scoresheet in the two games that he played for the Stripes. Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards was named the Kobe Bryant Trophy winner as the all-star MVP with 32 points over three games for the Stars.

Each of the three teams in the tournament played two round-robin games before the top two teams faced off again in the final.

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While Barnes finished the first game with one three-point make, he had a team-high five rebounds for the Stars to go along with two assists, a steal and a block. Edwards had a team-high 13 points for the Stars, while San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama had a game-high 14 points for World.

Kitchener’s Jamal Murray, a star guard with the Denver Nuggets, had eight points in two games for the World team, which was without Hamilton’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league MVP with the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

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Former Raptors guard Norm Powell, who was born in San Diego but represents Jamaica at the national level, also played on the World team and chipped in five points total.

The Stripes won their first two games to qualify for the final — a 42-40 decision against the Stars, with San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox pulling a Barnes at the buzzer as well; and a 48-45 victory over the World team.

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Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown led the Stripes with 11 points against the Stars in the round robin, while former Raptor and current Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, who was playing on his home court, had a stunning 31 points in the win against World.

The final saw seven of the eight Stars players who suited up score at least two baskets each, while the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell led the Stripes with six points.

The first two mini games appeared to be played at a higher level of competitiveness than most All-Star Games in recent years, suggesting the league’s fourth all-star format in four years might have finally cracked the code on the long-standing question of how to make this midseason showcase more entertaining.

Defence took a back seat in the final, however, especially after the Stars opened a big lead against the Stripes.

The All-Star Game had received years of criticism for the players’ increasingly indifferent effort and TV viewers’ declining interest. The new setup matched two teams of American all-stars against a team representing the World, hoping to stoke nationalistic passion from players and fans during an Olympic year.

— With files from The Associated Press.

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