All-Stars competitive? NBA hoping
INDIANAPOLIS — Last season’s All-Star Game played out in a way that the NBA hopes to never experience again. Nobody was interested in defense and almost nobody was watching the game, at least according to the abysmal TV ratings.
So, the league sent a message: Make the All-Star Game better.
How that’ll work is anyone’s guess. But they’ll give it a shot Sunday night, when the NBA’s midseason showcase game returns to Indianapolis for the first time in nearly four decades — with a return to the old no-draft, Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference, 48minute game format.
Nobody wants, or expects, Game 7, playoff-type intensity. Nobody is going to risk injury, nor should they, and everyone can agree that injuries — Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Phoenix’s Kevin Durant, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo all either missed the game entirely or played very briefly because of injuries — helped doom the ratings.
A little competitiveness might lead to a bounce back.
The final score of last year’s game, where James and Antetokounmpo served as captains: Team Giannis 184, Team LeBron 175. Boston’s Jayson Tatum set an All-Star Game record by scoring 55 points and the game had a total — total — of four free throws, all of them shot by Antetokounmpo’s team.
“Hot take: I probably won’t score 55 points tomorrow,” Tatum said Saturday.
We know this much, though: Scoring won’t be hard to find. There’s going to be a ton of 3-pointers attempted — there were 126 tried last year in this game — and most of them won’t exactly be fired off with a defender coming in a full sprint to close out the shooter.
Dunks will be constant, taking charges almost certainly won’t happen unless someone just happens to accidentally get in somebody’s way, and it would take something incredibly egregious to get Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers or Minnesota’s Chris Finch to challenge a call.
“I want it to be more competitive. I think it can be more competitive,” said Rivers, the East coach. “But the health thing, it’s an issue with anything. Someone can get hurt in the layup line. You just never know.”