For the second straight year it’s Team LeBron vs. Team Durant in the NBA All-Star game with KD unable to participate due to injury. This is also the fifth year of the current format that has team captains selecting their roster through a schoolyard type draft. As leading vote-getters LeBron James and Kevin Durant were tabbed as captains. James has enjoyed plenty of success as captain in the current format picking the winning roster in each of the last four years. The captains picked their teams from a pool of starters and reserves regardless of position or conference affiliation.
The 71st NBA All-Star Game takes place at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 20, 2022, from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, OH and will air live on TNT and TBS. Visit BookMaker.eu for a complete list of betting odds and props for All-Star Sunday.
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The Rosters
As the top overall vote-getter LeBron owned the first pick among the starters taking Giannis Antetokounmpo. He added Stephen Curry with the second pick giving Team LeBron a combined eight NBA MVP awards between those three players. DeMar DeRozan and last season’s MVP Nikola Jokic round out the starting five. For the second straight year Durant won’t play in the game as he recovers from an injury. He did select his team, though, with a well-rounded starting five that includes big man Joel Embiid, wings Andrew Wiggins and Jayson Tatum, and backcourt stars Ja Morant and Trae Young. It’s hard to say if a team has an advantage considering we have a collection of the best players in the world.
2022 All-Star Game Format
The league did away with the outdated East vs. West format a few years ago moving to the captain and draft format. James has served as a captain every year since the format was instituted and his team won each of the previous four games. Team LeBron had a whopping second quarter in last year’s game, the first using the target score. Each of the first three quarters start at 0-0 with teams competing for their respective charities. The final target score is determined by taking the leading team’s total cumulative score through three quarters and adding 24 points. The 24 is to honor the late Kobe Bryant. There is no clock for the final frame instead the first team to reach or surpass the target score is declared the winner. Team LeBron got huge games from Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard at the 2021 All-Star Game to reach the target score first in a 170-150 victory.
Team LeBron
If it aint broke don’t fix it. That may have been LeBron’s thinking heading into the draft since his first two picks this year were the same as the previous year, and six of the 10 players were members of Team LeBron last year. James drafted Antetokounmpo first overall and Curry with his second pick. Those three give Team LeBron an edge in MVP awards with eight between them. Add last season’s MVP Jokic and this team is stacked. And there’s something about the format that LeBron likes. He’s won every game as a team captain.
A look at the rosters tells us that big men are finding it more difficult to compete. But the ones in Cleveland are the best the NBA has. The best of the best could be Jokic, who leads the Denver Nuggets in scoring, rebounding and assists. Last year’s league MVP could be the X-factor for Team LeBron with his ability to pass and shoot the ball from distance. He has plenty of shooters to dish the ball to, including the greatest three-point threat in NBA history in Curry. Antetokounmpo won game MVP last season making all 16 of his shots for 35 points while Curry knocked home eight triples.
Team Durant
Two players standout to me as Team Durant looks to avenge last season’s loss. Joel Embiid was an All-Star last year and a member of Team Durant, but he didn’t play due to COVID concerns. And you might remember the game itself was controversial for being played in the middle of a pandemic. Embiid is the front-runner for league MVP this season and is no doubt itching to play. He leads the NBA in scoring and had a recent streak of 31 games with at least 25 points.
And is there a more exciting player than Ja Morant right now? My answer is no since Morant has the Memphis Grizzlies hovering near the top of the Western Conference standings. He averages over 26 points while shooting 49.3 percent from the field. Team Durant has a good mix of youth and experience and the roster appears to have more balance. KD drafted size with Embiid, Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, and he has plenty of firepower with Morant, Young, Devin Booker and Khris Middleton.
NBA All-Star Game Odds Pick
Given the talent assembled on the court it’s hard to give any team a distinct advantage. One thing we can say with plenty of certainty is that points will be scored. Seven of the last eight games had at least 300 points scored with Team LeBron and Team Durant combining for 320 points in the target scoring format last year.
NBA Odds Prediction: Team Durant 157, Team LeBron 149
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