In spite of leading the Eastern Conference All-Stars in scoring, Ray Allen did not take home MVP honors.  Instead, the prize went to Lebron James, who finished with an impressive 27 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks in 30 minutes.  More impressively, however, Sugar Ray finished with 28 points in 11 less minutes than King James, including 14 points in the last 3 and a half minutes of play.  How does that single fact alone not earn you the MVP?   Ray hit 5 of 9 shots from three-point range, missed a surprising 2 of 5 foul shots tonight, and chipped in 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist in his 19 minutes.  What I will take away from Ray's performance is that, simply put, he looked like he belonged out there with the game's best, playing with the confidence and professional demeanor we've become familiar with on the Garden parquet.  Lebron had an awesome game with a few sweet jams (most notably when Dwight Howard set him up for a nice one-hand slam about halfway through the second quarter), but let the record show that Ray had 1 more point than Lebron in 11 less minutes of play.  Did I mention that I think Ray Ray should have been MVP?

Celtics captain Paul Pierce had a solid All-Star performance, racking up 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.  Injured  forward Kevin Garnett appeared to be having a great time cheering on his teammates from the bench but no doubt would rather have been out there with Allen and Pierce.  Hopefully he will get his chance to return to the court and anchor "The New Big 3" on Tuesday against the Nuggets.