Pippen Is Piping Hot for East : Pro basketball: Bull forward scores 29 points in 127-118 victory in NBA All-Star game.

MINNEAPOLIS —  Scottie Pippen, in the shadow of Michael Jordan’s spotlight for the first six years of his career, knew it was time to grab it himself in the NBA All-Star game.

“Having Michael on our club really overshadowed guys like Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong and myself,” Pippen said Sunday after leading the East to a 127-118 victory. “It was time for us to step up as All-Stars a little more. I had my mind set to play much better than I played in past All-Star games.”

Pippen, making his fourth All-Star appearance but his first since his superstar teammate on the Chicago Bulls retired last October, scored 29 points on nine-for-15 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds to win MVP honors.

“I tried to assert myself a little more,” Pippen said. “My skills are able to put me up among the elite players. I don’t think I needed to go out today and prove anything to anybody.”

Pippen, wearing fire-engine red shoes, had averaged 9.3 points in his first three All-Star games. Despite his 29 points, he only scored two in the fourth quarter, but they were big--a baseline jumper with 2:10 left after the West pulled within two points.

“It was the shoes,” Pippen joked about his performance. “Everybody was looking at my feet too much. I was shooting well and I just continued to let my shot flow.”

The East took its largest lead, 103-90, in the first minutes of the fourth quarter, but the West rallied with a 17-5 run, closing to 108-107 with 7:17 left. Gary Payton’s six points and David Robinson’s five keyed the comeback.

But the East regained control as New York teammates Patrick Ewing and John Starks combined to score the next nine East points for a 117-110 lead. The run of points by regular-season teammates continued a pattern that the East followed the entire game.

A basket by Clifford Robinson and a three-pointer by John Stockton made it 117-115 before Pippen, after missing two free throws, connected on his baseline shot.

“I think of him like Lawrence Taylor, the way he came into the NFL,” Stockton said of Pippen. “He’s a new wave. The things he can do, he just changes the game by himself.”

David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon shared scoring honors with 19 points each for the West, which trails the All-Star series 28-16.

Ewing scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and Mark Price also had 20 for the East, which had 10 three-pointers to one for the West. Pippen was five for nine from that range.

“He was in a zone,” West coach George Karl said. “It’s difficult when you’re substituting a great deal to keep the same guy on him.”

Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA’s leading scorer this season, had a miserable day for the East, missing 10 of 12 shots and seven of 11 free throws to finish with eight points. But he managed 10 rebounds.

“They were quadruple-teaming me, triple-teaming me,” O’Neal said. “I thought somebody was going to play me straight up, but it didn’t happen. It means somebody respects me if they had to put four guys on me.”

The West, down by 12 in the first half and by eight at halftime, rallied in the third quarter, closing within four twice before Price hit a jumper and a three-pointer in a span of 37 seconds, helping the East rebuild the margin to 101-90 going into the final 12 minutes.

In the first half, East coach Lenny Wilkens made good use of players who are used to being on the court together.

The West led 25-23 late in the first period before Price, three Knicks and two Atlanta Hawks scored all but two of the East’s points in a 36-22 burst that made it 59-47 with 4:59 left in the second quarter.

Wilkins scored 10 points, Price nine, Mookie Blaylock five and Ewing, Starks and Charles Oakley combined for 10 more in the run that gave the East its largest lead of the first half.

Pippen, Grant and Armstrong then combined for the East’s next 10 points for a 72-64 halftime lead.

Pippen and Armstrong scored the East’s first 15 points, with Armstrong hitting a jumper and Pippen following with 10 points in less than two minutes, including two three-pointers.