MVP Barkley Helps East Save Face, 116-114 : NBA All-Stars: His 22 rebounds, 17 points provide a rare bright spot in an error-plagued game.

Amid an NBA All-Star game besieged by indignity emerged Charles Barkley, usually a pretty good choice to save the day.

This day included 51 turnovers, a missed dunk by former dunking champion Dominique Wilkins, and the potential game-winning shot by Kevin Johnson being tipped away by West teammate Karl Malone. But in the end, Barkley stood untainted on a mountain of 22 rebounds and 17 points and his most valuable player trophy as the East hung on, 116-114, Sunday to win for the ninth time in 11 tries.

The play of Barkley, listed at 6- foot-6 but much closer to 6-4 1/2, was no more impressive than usual, so his performance before 23,530 at Charlotte Coliseum hardly seemed an aberration. But he chose to enjoy the moment.

“Tomorrow it’s back to 25-21,” he said of his Philadelphia 76ers.

A 9 1/2-game deficit to the Boston Celtics in the Atlantic Division and a Tuesday appearance at Portland awaits. So in one sense, the game was to Barkley what Barkley was to the game. A sense that things can go as well as planned.

“That’s what I wanted to do today, get a lot of rebounds,” he said. “I told the coaches before the game that I was going for 15. When I had 11 at the half, I decided to go for 20. And if I say I’m going to get 15 rebounds, I’m going to get 15 rebounds.”

He passed that in the third quarter, despite playing only 16 minutes the first half. By getting six more in the final period, Barkley ran up the highest all-star total since the 22 by Wilt Chamberlain in 1967 and became the first player to break 20 since Dave Cowens in 1972. The record is 27, by Bob Pettit in 1962.

The irony is that, given his choice, Barkley might not have been here in the first place. Still playing despite a stress fracture in his left foot, he made noise about not showing up. But the league office, already having given an excused absence to the Celtics’ Larry Bird, persuaded him to play here.

And now he has the MVP trophy, even if it didn’t make the pain go away.

“I’m glad I came here,” he said. “I wasn’t doing anything until today, but people still tried to make a big deal out of that. There was no big deal. If I was healthy enough to play for the Sixers, I was healthy enough to play here.”

Said Malone: “He said he had a stress fracture. Yeah, right.”

Barkley, sitting next to him: “I said it was a slight stress fracture.”

Malone: “I think he set everybody up.”

All of this might have been in a losing effort were it not for Malone and his apparent impatience, which went a long way toward overshadowing the six-of-11 shooting, 16 points and 11 rebounds by the Utah Jazz forward.

The West, having gone scoreless since Chris Mullin’s two free throws with 1:35 to play, trailed, 116-114, in the closing minute. Their next-to-last possession ended when David Robinson fired a pass across the key that sailed out of bounds untouched with 37 seconds to play. Given a final chance, Coach Rick Adelman called timeout with 15 seconds remaining and diagramed a play with several options.

What transpired wasn’t one of them. The Lakers’ Magic Johnson and San Antonio’s Robinson, who had 16 points each, tried a pick and roll as the clock wound down into single digits, but Michael Jordan of the East moved over to guard Robinson and knocked the ball away from him. Johnson got the ball back and passed to Kevin Johnson standing slightly behind the three-point line on the right side.

Kevin Johnson launched a shot that, judging by television replays, seemed destined to fall short, but that players for both sides said would have gone in. Malone didn’t wait to find out and tipped the ball during the downward arc, knocking it off the backboard. Referees called offensive basket interference, and the East had the ball back for the final seconds.

“From where I was standing, it looked like it was going to go in,” Magic Johnson said. “It might have, it might not have. I was thinking, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . What is he doing? ‘ “

Malone threw himself on the mercy of his teammates, now poorer by the $2,000 difference between the winning and losing shares.

“I should probably have left it alone, but I wasn’t sure if it was going in,” he said. “I just wanted to run and hide after I did it.”

He could have had company in Wilkins, whose uncontested windmill dunk smashed the front of the rim in the first quarter. The West bench had a good laugh, not realizing then that the most painful funny moment would be saved for last.

NBA Notes

The 116 points by the East was the lowest score for a winning team since 1975 at Phoenix. . . . Laker James Worthy was three for 11 and finished with nine points and two rebounds in 21 minutes. The Atlanta Hawks’ Dominique Wilkins also was three of 11, Bernard King of the Washington Bullets was two for eight and John Stockton of the Utah Jazz one for six. Michael Jordan, who received one MVP vote, had 10 turnovers to go with his game-high 26 points. . . . Players and coaches from the winning team received $5,000, the losers $3,000. . . . The 1992 game is at Orlando, Fla.