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By Joe Lago
ESPN.com

PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Jordan's first-quarter attempt at a breakaway slam summed up the Eastern Conference's showing -- and pretty much the action -- Sunday at the First Union Center.

Both were clanks.

	Jordan's missed dunk was the one moment nobody will forget.

Much to the surprise of everyone watching the 51st NBA All-Star game, Jordan bounced the ball off the back rim and into the East bench, where his teammates leaped out of their seats in mock laughter. The East All-Stars had little reason to smile the rest of the contest as the West rolled to an easy 135-120 win.

"I laugh at myself," Jordan said of his slip-up on the wide-open slam. "If I can't laugh at myself I can't laugh at anybody."

There were more jeers than cheers as fans booed unfavorite son Kobe Bryant's every move en route to a game-high 31 points and the most valuable player award. Drama interrupted the boo birds momentarily with eight minutes to play when the West had its lead cut to 10 and responded with three of its All-Star-record 13 3-pointers for a game-clinching 13-4 spurt.

"We just kind of let the guys play and have a good time, but we did want to win the game," West head coach Don Nelson said. "I told them that was a priority, and to make sure that they did the little things that made them All-Stars, which is to play both ends of the floor."

The West's dominance was made clear right from the start in building a 32-24 lead after one quarter. A lackluster first half ended with the West leading 72-55 on the strength of Bryant's 23 points at the break.

Fans couldn't even rely on Jordan for entertainment. He played 11 minutes in the first quarter, scoring six points on 3-of-7 shooting, then sat the entire second quarter. The 38-year-old finished the game with eight points in 22 minutes, the most glaring of his nine misses (in 13 attempts) coming with 3:20 left in the first quarter.

A missed dunk by Chris Webber created the breakaway for Jordan. The only question, it seemed, was what dunk he was going to choose. That turned out to be his problem.

"He told us that he didn't know what dunk he wanted to do," East guard Jason Kidd said. "I told him if I had that problem, I could see it being a problem. But a layup or a regular dunk would've worked just fine. It just shows that he's human."

"It has been a while since I've been in that circumstance," Jordan said of the clear lane to the basket. "Obviously, that told its own story, and the wheels started turning. I started trying to figure out, 'Well, what will you do?' And at the last minute, you think, 'Well, just dunk it.' And you just lose concentration."

"I asked him why he missed that one, but he didn't miss the one on me," joked Tim Duncan, who watched Jordan fly over him for a baseline jam in the first quarter.

Tracy McGrady turned in the dunk highlight of the night midway through the second quarter. Driving down the lane, McGrady lobbed the ball off the glass with his left hand, caught it in mid-air and threw it down with both hands.

The fans booed Paul Pierce for not getting the ball to McGrady on a 2-on-1 break seconds later, but McGrady added a reverse dunk off Baron Davis' alley-oop feed to pull the East within 48-46.

McGrady led the East with 24 points off the bench. Pierced added 19.

"I have done that dunk numerous times in high school," said McGrady of his lob job. "I just wanted to try it on the NBA level. ... It was a great opportunity to pull it off."

The East didn't come close to mounting a serious comeback. An exchange of five straight 3-pointers made things interesting in the fourth quarter, as Ray Allen hit back-to-back threes to bring the East within 10 points, but the West responded each time with 3-pointers by Gary Payton and Peja Stojakovic.

Pierce sank a three from the left wing to reduce the West's lead to 106-96. But after Allen missed a chance to cut the deficit to seven with an open look beyond the arc, Payton hit another 3-pointer to push the West out to a 109-96 cushion with 7:49 to play.

"I thought we played really well as a team," West guard Wally Szcerbiak said. "We really shared the ball and knocked down a lot of big threes. That's what got us over the hump."

Jordan, like the rest of the East's squad, got warmed up just a little too late.

"It took me about four minutes to break a sweat," Jordan said. "Obviously, when you get out on the basketball court, sometimes it's tough to drag yourself away from a competitive moment."

Joe Lago is an NBA editor for ESPN.com.