All-Star Weekend 2012

We've got a couple of All-Star related threads already, but I thought I'd go ahead and create a catch-all for predictions, general chatter and the like.

Predictions: Awards & Contest Winners

Rising Stars Challenge: Team Shaq

Shaq's team is a little heavy on point guards but he's also got some shooters and the only bonafide established All-Star in Blake Griffin. I know a lot of people despair at the lack of defense in this game and the lopsided scores but we might get a competitive one this year. If nothing else, we've got some really good young point guards to throw lobs to Griffin, so there should be some must-see highlights if nothing else.

Shooting Stars: Team New York

Far from my favourite event and a tough one to pick; usually every team has a couple of good shooters past or present but so many teams get caught up on that midcourt shot and then the rest of their round is for naught. I'm basically picking New York at random here.

Skills Challenge: Deron Williams

Curry was my original pick but since he's out, I'll go with Deron Williams.

Three Point Shootout: James Jones

I'm going with another repeat winner. I feel it's a toss up between him and Anthony Morrow. Love and Anderson could be dark horse winners, but I have a feeling their contest performance won't match their in-game proficiency. A pretty good field all around but shooting wide open threes is what Jones does and 50 of his 62 field goal attempts thus far this season have been from three point range. Like Craig Hodges, this is simply his event.

Dunk Contest: Jeremy Evans

Great athleticism and has shown a bit of flair. He's the replacement but I also think he's going to end up the winner as well. Without a big "name" in the contest, there's no real bias in the fan voting so I think whoever puts on the best show will get the votes and I'm picking Evans to do just that.

All-Star Game: West wins, Kevin Durant is MVP

Glancing at the rosters, it looks like the West will control the paint and ultimately get the win. They've got Chris Paul there to run the team and find all the scorers where they need the ball and I'm guessing Durant will be the recipient of a lot of those passes, scoring around 30 and taking home MVP honours. I'm guessing the East will be looking for Howard a lot and if they win he'll probably end up with the MVP hardware, but I'll stick with the West and Durant.

Miscellaneous Predictions

• The Celebrity Game will certainly have its ugly moments, but I'm kind of looking forward to seeing Penny Hardaway back in action. I'm hoping that even at his age and after all his injuries, he's still got a little something left in the tank to have a few entertaining moments in a game like this.
  
  
• Luol Deng will be one of the first players of the bench for the East and end playing around 24 minutes at least...unless Thibbs decides to be "kind" and gives the Heat's trio a lot of minutes. Something to think about, Thibbs...
  
  
• Griffin will have at least five dunks in the game, most likely somewhere between five and ten.
  
  
• On a not uncompletely related note, Paul is going to get double digit assists on the night.
  
  
• The amount of times Dwight Howard is asked about his trade demands or the situation is brought up by the commentators will make for a potentially lethal drinking game.
  
  
• Chase Budinger brings out the real Yao to try and dunk over him.

Yao is in the States right now? That would be exciting.

Who did Jeremy Evans replaced?

I'm not sure if he is. If he's not, scratch that prediction.

Evans replaced Iman Shumpert.

James Jones repeat!

And East will take the ASG.

Predictions:

Allstar game-West wins Blake Griffin wins MVP
Rising stars challenge winner:Team Shaq-New lob city, Jeremy Lin to Blake Griffin
Slam Dunk Contest winner:Chase Budinger
3 point contest winner:It'll come down to James Jones and Ryan Anderson, Ryan Anderson comes out the winner
Skills challege:Stephen Curry
Shooting stars:New York
The western allstars bench just destroys the eastern allstars bench, Kobe is playing like he did years ago, Blake Griffin is up and jumping, and if Steve Nash gets a lot of playing time, watch out for a bunch of assists, especially to Kobe and Blake.

Curry was replaced by Rondo in the Skills Challenge... I want Chuck to win and the West to win.

If Evans wins, it's going to be a chance to improve himself in NBA.

If Evans wins, it's going to be a chance to improve himself in NBA.

How? it has nothing to do with NBA success.

Since Curry's out, I'll go with Deron Williams in the Skills Challenge.

Man, Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, killing it, weird jumper, but nice passing. Best Celeb game I've seen maybe ever. As for the Rising Star, I feel Shaq is tooo undersized (he's got what 5 PGs?), and Chuck's squad will take advantage and own in the post, especially once Griffin goes out.

Agreed, as far as celebrity games go this one has been pretty good. Nice to see the Run-TMC reunion and three fifths of the Magic's starting lineup from the 90s back in action too, even if a couple of them aren't in the best shape and don't appear to have touched a basketball all too often since hanging it up. It's all in good fun though and even though it's not particularly competitive right now, it's been fun to watch.

Yeah, that was a wild sequence to end the first half.

Not a bad game, not quite as competitive as you'd like but it had its moments. Some pretty cool dunks though, Paul George actually went for the elbow in the rim towards the end there and Wall's behind-the-back slam was awesome. I'd have to agree with Kenny Smith, get him in the dunk contest sometime.

Kyrie was 8 for 8 from 3pt. I'm glad to see my 300 votes helped him win mvp.

Kyrie was amazing, great fun run n' gun game. As predicted, Chuck had a ton of size, Griffin rested a ton.

That was a pretty good Game for Rising Stars, and good to see Chuck take home the win.

HHHAAAA... I seen alot of airballs from the rookies i dont know what was wrong with em...

Wow Team Chuck dominated the heck over Team Shaq!

MarShon Brooks is known for being a weird player. He'd look to score before trying to get a teammate involved; I've seen him make some crazy shots, but he didn't do a good job on that one... he's still shooting a two...

phpBB [video]

We can see how quick and athletic Monroe is through that play. Also the court vision, just nuts.

Monroe did the right thing. John Wall needs to stop sucking before he's allowed to do that in exhibition games.

phpBB [video]

One of my favourite Rubio moves so far...

Monroe did the right thing. John Wall needs to stop sucking before he's allowed to do that in exhibition games.

Was the BBVA really considered a serious game? No it wasn't Wall just wanted to do a little somethin for the fans, its All-Star weekend i dont think anyone there wanted to see a game full of serious defense and bad shooting. And Monroe is a bitch for that.