The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – In a proud city still restoring its unique beauty, the Eastern Conference repaired its own image.

Ray Allen scored 28points, making three straight 3-pointers in the final 3:15, and LeBron James added 27 as the East, widely considered the NBA’s weaker half, beat the Western Conference 134-128 in Sunday night’s All-Star Game.

Last year, the West humiliated the East in a 153-132 rout in Las Vegas when Kobe Bryant and Co. rewrote the event’s record books. However, this time led by Allen’s 14 fourth-quarter points and a stunning dunk by James with 55 seconds left, the East salvaged some pride and can return to the season’s second half with bragging rights.

And this time, Bryant made nothing more than a cameo appearance. The Lakers star, who won MVP honors last year, played less than 3 minutes so he could rest his injured pinkie. The 10-time All-Star dislocated his finger earlier this month and doctors have advised him to have surgery.

Bryant, though, energized by the club’s addition of center Pau Gasol in a trade, wants to delay any operation until late summer. As soon as he took on the West’s bench, a trainer wrapped a large ice pack around his entire hand, rendering arguably the league’s top player to spectator status.

The West could have used him.

“There’s one player we really, really missed, and that was Kobe,” West coach Byron Scott of New Orleans said. “Obviously, Kobe would have loved to play.”

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John DeShazier – The Times-Picayune

He is unrivaled now and has been the last four to six seasons, depending on who is asked.

There, atop the NBA’s list of excellence, sits the one player the consensus seems to agree is the best the league currently has to offer, one of the best who ever will take a basketball and create a masterpiece. Kobe.

There are NBA stars in New Orleans this weekend, and there are NBA All-Stars in New Orleans this weekend, several of who will play in today’s game, and there is Kobe Bryant, to whom the stars and All-Stars defer.

“Kobe,” Jazz forward Carlos Boozer said, almost before the who’s-the-best question could be completed. “Kobe Bryant. He has everything offensively, and he has everything defensively. He has no flaws.

“If there’s a guy in this league that doesn’t have any flaws, it’d be Kobe.”

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With the the Lakers emerging as contenders, the star decides to play through a finger injury

The Salt Lake Tribune

Go ahead, call Kobe Bryant selfish. Call him arrogant and self-centered. Call him a fool for running off Shaq. Call him a diva for his offseason trade demands.

Just don’t call him soft.

Don’t say that the lifetime Los Angeles Laker doesn’t ultimately want to win, and please don’t say he’s not a competitor who’s not willing to play through pain. I say this because of the torn ligaments in his finger, the one on his shooting hand. I say this because the pain that comes along with that is no joke.

Think about it. Even if you tape the finger, which Bryant will do heavily, it’ll still get hit every time he touches the ball. It’ll still get hit on every shot, on every pass, every time a defender reaches and every time he goes to the basket.

That’s a lot of contact to take over 30 games, not counting the playoffs. But the alternative for Kobe is to hang it up for six weeks, take the surgery and hope like heck that the Lakers will still be in the playoff hunt once the finger heals.

In that vein, Bryant has no choice.

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Lakers’ Kupchak has locked up executive of the year.

By Mark Heisler, Los Angeles Times

I want to thank Dr. Buss, Mr. Cuban . . .

Here’s what we know after two weeks of whirlwind activity that’s still whirling:

Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak just wrapped up executive of the year.

Kupchak not only stole Pau Gasol, he wiped out half the West elite as teams winning 60 games a season tried to reconfigure on the fly to deal with the Lakers.

Of course, compared to the Dallas deal for Jason Kidd — now on life support — the Suns’ gamble on Shaquille O’Neal was a coup.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who didn’t like the price, now has a train wreck on his hands, leaving him with his old, sagging team and the Nets with the unhappy Kidd.

You’ve heard the best deals are the ones that help both teams?

This wasn’t one.

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By TOM WITHERS – Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Wearing a black brace on his injured right hand, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant sat out the Western Conference’s light practice on Saturday but still expects to start in Sunday’s NBA All-Star game.

Bryant, the MVP in last year’s game, has a torn pinkie ligament from dislocating the finger on Feb. 5 in a game against New Jersey. Although surgery has been recommended, Bryant wants to keep playing and postpone any operation until after the Beijing Olympics in August.

While his teammates broke a sweat doing some half-speed drills and shooting during a 25-minute workout, Bryant sat on the bench. At the end of practice, Bryant heaved up one shot — left-handed.

Bryant would prefer not to play Sunday night, but he doesn’t have a choice. League policy dictates that if a player is healthy enough to play in the final game before the All-Star break and the first one after, he has too play in the midseason event.

During media availability, Bryant said he would start for the West squad but doesn’t expect to play much. He understands the importance of not risking injury to help the Lakers in the second half of the season.

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