LAS VEGAS — The NBA ‘s All-Star Recreation goes to be an All-Star event this season, with the league saying on Tuesday that it has finalized plans to make use of a distinct format for the upcoming midseason showcase in San Francisco.
And scoring is bound to be down — means, means, means down.
This season’s format is a four-team, three-game, one-night event, three groups of eight All-Stars apiece and the fourth staff being the winner of the Rising Stars problem for first- and second-year gamers. The successful staff in all video games would be the first to attain 40 factors.
It’ll occur Feb. 16 on the residence of the Golden State Warriors. The Rising Stars occasion is there Feb. 14, headlining All-Star Friday.
“I think we’ve come to terms that modern All-Stars are in part about competition, but ultimately they’re about entertaining the fans and creating a strong experience for them,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated Tuesday.
Silver has needed a extra aggressive All-Star occasion for a while, and this variation comes after the groups mixed to attain a report 397 factors — 211-186 was the ultimate — in final season’s sport at Indianapolis.
The groups mixed to take 289 shot makes an attempt in final yr’s sport, 94% of these being both contained in the paint or past the 3-point line.
“Obviously, with the elephant in the room being us competing, them trying to shake things up is expected and makes sense,” stated Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a possible All-Star choice this season for the third time. “At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to whether the players want to go at it, and I would love to see that. Love to be a part of that for sure, and hopefully it happens.”
There have been different All-Star format shakeups lately. After the primary 66 All-Star Video games have been mainly performed like a standard sport — Japanese Convention vs. Western Convention, 4 quarters, 12 minutes apiece — the league switched to a format the place the main vote-getters from every convention served as captains who bought to draft their groups.
LeBron James served as one of many captains all six instances, with Giannis Antetokounmpo the opposite captain 3 times, Kevin Durant twice and Stephen Curry as soon as.
In 4 of the captain’s-pick years, All-Star Video games used a goal rating on the finish of video games, making certain that the winner was selected a made shot. Fourth quarters have been untimed and the winner was the primary staff to achieve regardless of the main staff’s rating was after three quarters, plus 24 factors — the 24 being a nod to Kobe Bryant’s final jersey quantity.
It went again to the East vs. West format final yr and noticed a report level complete together with Luka Doncic attempting a 70-foot jumper, Donovan Mitchell throwing a 50-foot underhand inbounds go, Bam Adebayo inbounding the ball to himself by tossing it off Nikola Jokic’s bottom, Tyrese Haliburton attempting and making 5 3-pointers in a 92-second span, and Damian Lillard capping the night time with a 44-foot jumper — which wasn’t even his longest shot of the sport.
“I think something could be done about it,” Lillard stated after his MVP-winning efficiency in final yr’s sport. “I’m not sure what, but I think there’s a way to make it a more competitive game.”
The league, which labored with the Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation on this new format, hopes it has discovered the reply.
“We went back to the drawing board with the players association, and again talking directly to players and said, ‘Let’s come up with a format that we think has a better chance of creating a game, or in this case a series of competitions that will be of interest to the fans,’ ” Silver stated. “So, this is where we came out.”
Voting format
All-Star voting begins Thursday and the format is unchanged.
Followers — who can vote by Jan. 20 — can solid ballots every day for 3 frontcourt and two backcourt gamers from each conferences.
That’ll be a part of a weighted components — 50% fan vote, 25% media panel vote, 25% present participant vote — to find out the ten gamers that will probably be designated as “starters.”
NBA head coaches will decide the 14 gamers designated as “reserves.”
However the starter and reserve columns gained’t imply a lot on sport night time, since there will probably be 15 totally different gamers beginning — 5 from every of the three groups, clearly — and solely 9 gamers coming off the bench in these semifinal video games.
How the groups will probably be picked
TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will draft groups from the 24-player All-Star pool on Feb. 6. The groups will bear their names — Group Shaq, Group Charles and Group Kenny.
The Rising Stars winner that’ll go to the All-Star event will probably be known as Group Candace, for Candace Parker.
Teaching staffs
The teaching staffs from the groups with the perfect information within the Japanese and Western Conferences will go to the All-Star Recreation. (It can’t be the Milwaukee or Minnesota teaching staffs this yr, since they coached final yr.)
The East and West head coaches will every coach a staff within the event; one assistant coach from every workers will function head coach for the opposite two groups within the All-Star event.
Prize cash
There’s a prize pool of $1.8 million for the All-Star Recreation.
Every participant on the All-Star champion staff will get $125,000, every participant on the runner-up staff will get $50,000 and the gamers on the groups eradicated within the semifinals will every get $25,000.