Curry, Durant named All-Star starters.
Thompson, Green could make roster as reserves
Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant will start in the 2019 NBA All- Star Game in Charlotte, the NBA announced during TNT’s “NBA Tip- Off” Thursday.
Curry, who will make his sixth All-Star appearance in his native Charlotte, is joined by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Paul George, Durant, Houston Rockets guard James Harden and Los Angeles Lakers forward — and team captain — LeBron James in the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference starters are Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving, Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, Charlotte Hornets guard Kemba Walker and Milwaukee Bucks forward and team captain Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Fans account for 50 percent of the starters’ votes, with the other half coming from the media and players. James and Antetokounmpo will be listed as captains and will each select five players to start for their respective teams in a televised segment on Feb. 7.
Durant, who was a starter last season, was among the top All- Star vote getters initially,
before being supplanted by Oklahoma City guard Paul George earlier this month. With the selection, Durant will make his 10th career appearance in the game.
“It’s fairly obvious when you see an All- Star, you kind of know that James Harden is an All- Star and he’s going to start. You know Steph Curry should start,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “When it gets difficult is when you’re picking the last couple of guys. To me there is usually eight or nine guys who are automatic and three or four guys that come from a pool of 10 or 15. That’s really difficult.”
The All- Star fates of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson remain undetermined. Thompson and Green will have to wait until Jan. 31 for the league to reveal the All-Star reserves on TNT’s “NBA Tip- Off” show. Kerr expressed skepticism the Warriors will have four All- Stars as they did last season.
“I doubt it. I don’t think so, to be honest with you,” Kerr said. I don’t think it’s been that kind of season. It’s been rocky at least until the last few weeks.”
Thompson, who is currently fifth among Western Conference guards (with 1,120,675 votes), hopes to get on the team despite a slow start to the season. As of late, Thompson has surged, averaging 27.9 points, on 57 percent from the field, including 50.7 percent from 3-point range.
“Klay has had an amazing month. I know he didn’t shoot it as well earlier in the year,” Kerr said. “I think he’s got a really good chance. There’s a lot of guys at that position. We’ll see.”
As for Green, he is ninth in the voting among Western Conference frontcourt players and has struggled this season. He has averaged 7.2 points, 7.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds but has struggled to stay on the floor, missing 14 games dealing with a myriad of injuries.
“The way Draymond has played the last few weeks, for sure, he’s been playing at an All- Star level. He’d be the first to tell you he wasn’t playing at an AllStar level for the first couple of months,” Kerr said. “My guess is he won’t make it. But who knows. We’ll see what happens. The way he’s playing now, he’s one of the best players in the league. We’re winning games. We’re going along pretty smoothly. Hopefully we can continue that.”