NBA All-Star Game: back Team LeBron on the handicap
By Mark Woods
19 February 2022
The annual showpiece of the NBA puts the brightest and best side by side, and this year's is set to follow the usual theme of entertainment and scoring trumping everything. The action begins late on Sunday night in Cleveland, at 1am UK time.
Sit back and enjoy the show
Pity Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert. The NBA All Star Game was just not made for them. Sure, Europe’s two towers of power and strength every bit deserve their place among the Association’s 24-strong cast of stellar superheroes in Cleveland on Sunday night – and many of the legends named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
But the duo are basketballers first and foremost, and the annual showpiece demands entertainers reign supreme.
Bet that they will take their minutes, remind the cognoscenti of what good footwork and a potent block can bring, and then take their seat and do what the rest of us will plan for: sit back and enjoy the show.
Team Kevin looking for revenge
That’s not to say that the jamboree won’t be competitive. For all the dunks and displays of athletic excellence on display, we’re still looking at two dozen of the most driven athletes on the planet.
The last 12 editions have been decided by an average of 5.9 points with seven of those by five points or less, aided by the ‘Elam Ending’ which concludes the game at a target score in the fourth quarter rather than over 48 minutes.
Bragging rights are on offer too between Team Durant, Kevin’s squad coached by the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, and Team LeBron (first name sufficient), helmed by Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns. Particularly with Team Kevin (to offer him parity) crushed by 20 in Atlanta 12 months ago as a James-led squad won for the fourth successive year.
Kevin Durant's team are the 34% underdogs in Sunday night's NBA All-Star Game
Plenty of points inevitable
Points aplenty will be the most inevitable aspect of all. Over the past 12 All Star Games, no victorious squad has scored below 141 points.
2016’s high water mark in Toronto was a combined tally of 369 but the “LeBron Era” has seen his rosters outscore Team Curry/Giannis/Durant by an average of 163.3 to 153.5 – with going under a total of 321.5 available at odds of 1.83.
And James' 2022 crew won’t lack for an offensive punch with five former MVPs in the shape of Curry, Antetokounmpo, Jokic, James Harden and LBJ himself – plus alpha bucket-getters like DeMar DeRozan, Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler and Donovan Mitchell.
There is a touch of Team Sensible about them with actual balance between guards and forwards. Although Doncic - back in full doing-ridiculous-stuff-with-a-ball mode in recent weeks – could be a sneaky pick for his first All Star MVP award.
Team Kevin the underdogs
No doubt Durant’s team – even without its captain/GM on the floor – looks like Team F-U-N but the market only gives them a 34% chance of victory.
Start with the backcourt of Ja Morant and Trae Young with Devin Booker as back-up and so many incentives to go crazy about his starter snub. Oh, and LaMelo Ball, who’s surely the most likely to attempt a 360-degree dunk on his first breakaway.
Throw in Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns, and there are plenty of targets for their guards to aim for.
Morant, Embiid, Doncic and James are the pre-determined hot MVP picks, particularly with the latter back in his hometown.
But given that it’s All Star and thus normal rules do not reply, who doesn’t want to see Harden do something ridiculous?
Harden could still surprise
There was so much sniggering at the back as Durant opted to pass up on his former Brooklyn Nets team-mate in the Draft with James, with both combining to make the now Sixer the 24th and final choice.
Mr. Irrelevant. Deservedly so. Harden, who leads the league in both time of possession and isolation possessions per game, has laboured on the court at an average of just 3.6 miles per hour, in a stat unearthed by NBA.com, the slowest among 333 players who’ve played at least 500 minutes.
On no normal planet would he be a potential All Star standout. But if there is one player who could go rogue on us, it’s The Beard. Jokic and Gobert would never be so impertinent. Harden just might.
Recommended Bet:
Team LeBron on a handicap of -5.5 at 1.8