James, Curry captains for all-stars

NEW YORK » Team LeBron against Team Stephen is the NBA’s new All-Star Game matchup.

LeBron James and Stephen Curry will go head to head again, this time as captains who pick teams for the revamped All-Star Game.

James and Curry received the most votes from fans in their conferences Thursday and will draft from a pool of the rest of the NBA’s best for the Feb. 18 game at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“Captain, huh? Really appreciate all the votes from the fans, media and players!” Curry wrote on Twitter.

James will pick first as the player who received the most fan votes. He will make his 14th All-Star Game start, one behind Kobe Bryant for the most in NBA history.

He could start his team with Kevin Durant, who teamed with Curry to beat James and the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. Or maybe he could go with Kyrie Irving, a former AllStar Game MVP who asked to be traded away from Cleveland last summer and has led Boston to the best record in the East.

Perhaps it will be Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom James came from behind to edge with 2.6 million votes. The Greek Freak had a little more than 2.5 million votes from fans.

The format was changed from the traditional East vs. West matchup for the first time after lackluster games the last two seasons, when players made little attempt to play defense and the West nearly scored 200 points in both of its victories.

Both James and Curry will make their first four picks from the pool of starters, but they don’t have to stick to conference affiliation in choosing their rosters.

The other starters from the Eastern Conference will be Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, the only firsttime all-star among the starters.

New Orleans also has two starters — Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. Houston guard James Harden, the NBA’s scoring leader, rounds out the starters, who were selected by a combination of fan, media and player voting. Fan balloting accounted for 50 percent of the formula, with the media panel and player vote each making up 25 percent.

The seven reserves in each conference, voted upon by the head coaches in each conference, will be announced Tuesday, and the rosters selected by James and Curry will be unveiled next Thursday.

The league doesn’t plan to televise the all-star draft.