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NBA All-Star Game - Feb. 18
By: Staff Writer - StatFox
Published: 2/16/2018  at  12:02:00 PM
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TEAM LEBRON vs. TEAM STEPHEN

Sunday, Feb. 18 at 8:00 pm ET – Staples Center
Line: N/A

LeBron James and Stephen Curry lead their handcrafted rosters against one another as the NBA debuts its new All-Star format on Sunday.

Generally speaking, high-scoring basketball is extremely entertaining. But every February in the NBA All-Star Game, the limits of that axiom are exposed as the league's superstars stroll up and down the court, scoring on completely uncontested dunks and carelessly tossed-up three-pointers. After last year's 192-182 victory for the Western Conference All-Stars was greeted with even more exasperation than usual, the NBA decided on a new format: The leading vote-getter from each conference would "draft" a team from the group of other players who were selected as All-Stars. The league claimed the new format (along with doubled prize money for the winners) would incentivize players to give their best effort—or at least any effort at all—presumably because they would feel animosity for the team that chose not to draft them. They screwed it up, though, by refusing to release the draft order for LeBron James' and Steph Curry's teams, let alone televise it. So without that element in play, there are actually fewer interesting storylines in play than last season's game, when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were playing together for the first time since their Thunder divorce.

There is something of a parallel to the KD-Russ situation on team LeBron, where LeBron himself drafted his ex-teammate Kyrie Irving to join him in the starting lineup. The King doesn't hold a grudge as intensely as Westbrook—no one does—but it will still be interesting to see how they interact with one another on the court. As the league's trickiest ball-handler, Irving was made for the All-Star stage. He won the MVP in 2014, his third season as a pro and second as an All Star. LeBron has earned that honor twice, most recently in 2008. Durant and Westbrook are on the same team again this year, and many have speculated that KD was LeBron's first overall selection in the draft. Russ is coming off the bench this year, but rest assured they'll see shared minutes. KD was ASG MVP in 2012, while Westbrook won back-to-back MVP trophies in 2015 and 2016. Last year's MVP, Anthony Davis, is also starting on Team LeBron. All these guys should be careful as the game approaches, as Team LeBron appears to have been cursed with injuries. Since the rosters were announced, DeMarcus Cousins and Kristaps Porzingis have suffered season-ending injuries, while John Wall and Kevin Love are sidelined for several weeks with injuries. Their replacements, respectively, are Paul George, Kemba Walker, Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic. Dwayne Casey of the Raptors is coaching Team LeBron, and he'll determine who will replace Cousins in the starting lineup. Other members of Team LeBron include Victor Oladipo, Bradley Beal and LaMarcus Aldridge.

The starting lineup drafted by Curry is also interesting. He and James Harden are veteran guards known for launching threes and breaking ankles, and they'll be the unquestioned leaders of the lineup. There's also Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo, young unicorns who will have plenty of attention on them. Embiid specifically is known for trolling antics, so we'll see if he has any gags up his sleeve for his first-ever All-Star Game. DeMar DeRozan rounds out the starting lineup as its least-heralded player, but he's having a fantastic season on a refreshed-looking Raptors squad. While Curry couldn't—or at least didn't—draft Durant, he snagged two of his own teammates for his bench in Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. He also got two teammates from Minnesota in Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns, and selected Kyle Lowry to join his teammate DeRozan. Damian Lillard is finally back in the All-Star Game for the third time in his career, having not been chosen to participate the last two seasons despite averaging over 25 points for a playoff team in each of them. Do-it-all Celtics center Al Horford rounds out Team Curry as the least flashy player in the game this year, but he'll be ready to set a fundamentally sound high pick if anyone wants one. Mike D'Antoni will coach Team Stephen, which features no former All-Star Game MVPs.


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