A Big weekend of Hoops kicks off in Indianapolis this weekend, as all of the Stars in the NBA World take centre stage at the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Everything gets started on Saturday with the Rising Stars Challenge at 1pm on ESPN, where 4 teams selected by Pau Gasol, Tamika Catchings, Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf battle it out for the Rising Stars crown.
Team Jalen will go head to head v Team Tamika, whilst Team Detlef goes head to head against Team Pau.
Team Pau: Bilal Coulibaly, Jaime Jaquez Jr, Brandon Miller, Brandin Podziemski, Jabari Smith Jr, Cason Wallace and Victor Wembanyama.
Team Tamika: Paolo Banchero, Dyson Daniels (out), Jalen Duren, Keyonte George, Scoot Henderson, Jaden Ivey, Keegan Murray and Vince Williams Jr.
Team Jalen: Jordan Hawkins, Chet Holmgren, Walker Kessler, Dereck Lively II, Bennedict Mathurin, Shaedon Sharpe (Out), Jeremy Sochan and Jalen Williams.
Team Detlef: Izan Almansa, Matas Buzelis, Ron Holland II, Mac McClung, Tyler Smith, Oscar Tshiebwe, Alondes Williams.
Prediction:
Team Tamika will get the win over Team Jalen in a tight one, whilst Team Pau should be far too strong for the G-League led Team Detlef. In the end, Team Tamika will run out victorious to win the Rising Stars Challenge in a very tight final over Team Pau!
All-Star Sunday gets started with the Skills challenge from after Midday.
3 Teams go head to head against each other in the Skills challenge this year headlined by the home team “Team Pacers”. Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner will be out to represent the Indiana Pacers.
Team “Top Picks” includes Paolo Banchero, Anthony Edwards and Victor Wembanyama.
Team “All-Stars” includes Scottie Barnes, Tyrese Maxey and Trae Young.
Prediction:
All-Stars win the relay portion of it, as well as taking out the Passing portion of the event.
Shooting portion of the event will go to Team Pacers.
We now get ourselves to one of the best events of the entire weekend. The 3 Point Contest has trumped the Dunk Contest as the main event of All-Star Weekend, and there’s plenty of stars taking centre stage here.
Damian Lillard attempts to go back to back in this contest and will have to fend off some quality shooters in this field. Malik Beasley, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Lauri Markannen, Donovan Mitchell, Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young round out the field here. Towns has also already won this contest, so he will be looking for his 2nd crown.
Haliburton will be out to show the home crowd that he is one of the best Indiana Pacers Point Guards to come around and win this one for all Pacers fans.
Prediction:
There’s been plenty of disrespect for Trae Young coming into this All-Star Weekend. He was snubbed with initial selection, whilst coming through as an injury replacement. He’s
competed in this contest before, and he will be after a better showing here. I think at the very least he makes the final, alongside Jalen Brunson and Damian Lillard!
The 3 Point Shoot Out is next up, with Steph Curry going head to head against Sabrina Ionescu. Sabrina broke the all-time record in the WNBA contest, going 37 of a possible 40 points scored to set up what is sure to be an exciting contest.
Sabrina will shoot from the WNBA 3 point line, whilst Steph lines up from NBA Range.
There’s been plenty of talk this week as to who is the best shooter across the board.
Prediction:
Steph Curry takes home the crown in the inaugural 3 point shootout, but it’ll be going down to the wire!
Last but not least, the Dunk Contest wraps things up on All-Star Sunday.
Mac McClung comes back to All-Star weekend as the reigning champ, and will have to fight off the likes of Jaylen Brown, Jaime Jaquez Jr and Jacob Toppin.
It’s always a hard one when it comes to predicting the Dunk Contest winner, but we will side with Mac McClung taking home the crown for a 2nd year straight, with Jacob Toppin not far behind!
All-Star Weekend wraps up with the Monday event of the All-Star Game between the East and West All-Stars. Back to regular formatting here, no more drafting teams with team captains along with the Elam ending gone. This is definitely one for the fans, with defence extremely optional (probably until the last few mins of the game if things get tight) and scoreboard attendant will be extremely busy!
Tyrese Haliburton who will be the lone Indiana Pacer in the All-Star Game (and starting PG) may very well break the Assists record for the Eastern Conference.
Overall, East All-Stars will run out victorious here, with Haliburton having at the very least 15 assists here!
Enjoy an extremely fun weekend of Hoops in Indianapolis and a very well deserved mini break from NBA Basketball, as the last 2 months is sure to be incredible viewing!
Bauky