LAS VEGAS — The NBA All-Star Game will become an All-Star Tournament this season, and the league announced Tuesday that it has finalized plans for a different format for the upcoming midseason tournament in San Francisco.
Scores are definitely going to go down — big, big, big.
This season’s format is a four-team, three-game, one-night tournament with three teams each featuring eight All-Stars, and the fourth team is the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge for first- and second-year players. The winning team in all games will be the first to score 40 points.
The game will be held on February 16 at the home court of the Golden State Warriors. The Rising Stars event will take place on February 14 and headline All-Star Friday.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has wanted the All-Star event to be more competitive for some time, a change that came after the two teams combined for a record 397 points in last season’s game in Indianapolis (ultimately winning 211-186) happened after that.
In last year’s game, the two teams took a total of 289 shots, 94% of which were in the paint or beyond the three-point line.
“Obviously, because we’re competing, it’s expected and it makes sense for them to try to shake things up,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who could make his third All-Star appearance this season. . “At the end of the day, it’s going to be up to the players if they want to do it and I’d love to see that. I would definitely love to be a part of that and hopefully it can happen.”
There have been other changes to the All-Star format in recent years. After the first 66 All-Star Games were played essentially like a normal game — Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference, four 12-minute quarters — the league switched to a format in which the player with the most votes from each conference served as captain. to pick their teams.
LeBron James has been one of the captains six times, Giannis Antetokounmpo has been the other three times, Kevin Durant has been the captain twice and Stephen Curry has been the captain once.
In all four years of the Captain’s Pick, the All-Star Game has used a goal score at the end of the game to ensure the winner is decided by field goal. In the untimed fourth quarter, the first team to reach the leading team’s score after three quarters wins, adding 24 points – 24 points in tribute to Kobe Bryant’s final jersey number.
The game returns to last year’s East-West format, with Luka Doncic attempting a 70-foot jumper, Donovan Mitchell throwing a 50-foot underhand inbounds pass, and Bam Adebayo passing the ball to himself , setting a total scoring record. Behind Nikola Jokic, Tyrese Haliburton attempted five 3-pointers in 92 seconds, and Damian Lillard ended the night with a 44-foot jumper — — It wasn’t even his longest shot of the game.
“I think there’s something that can be done to fix this,” Lillard said after winning MVP in last year’s game. “I’m not sure what it is, but I think there’s a way to make it a more competitive game.”
The league hopes it has found the answer.
voting form
All-Star voting will begin Thursday with the same format.
Fans have until January 20 to vote for three frontcourt players and two backcourt players from both leagues each day.
This will be part of a weighted formula – 50 percent fan voting, 25 percent media panel voting, 25 percent current player voting – to determine the 10 players who will be designated “starters.”
NBA head coaches will select 14 players designated as “substitutes.”
But the starting and bench lineups won’t mean much on game night, as there will be 15 different players starting – five from each of the three teams, obviously – and only nine substitutes in the semi-finals.
How the team will be selected
TNT analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will select the team from 24 All-Star players on February 6. The teams will be named after them: Team Shaq, Team Charles and Team Kenny.
The Rising Star winner who will compete in the All-Star Game will be called “Team Candace,” namely Candace Parker.
coaching staff
The coaching staffs of the teams with the best records in the East and West will head to the All-Star Game. (It can’t be Milwaukee or Minnesota’s coaching staff this year, as they coached last year.)
The head coaches from the East and West will each coach one team to participate in the competition; each team will send an assistant coach to serve as the head coach of the other two teams in the All-Star Game.
bonus
The prize pool for the All-Star Game is $1.8 million.
Each player on the All-Star championship team will receive $125,000, each player on the runner-up team will receive $50,000, and players on the eliminated team in the semifinals will receive $25,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
