Westbrook won’t start NBA All-Star Game
The Thunder might be represented at the NBA All-Star Game, but the team won’t have a starter.
Russell Westbrook finished fourth among Western Conference guards in fan voting and third in voting by both players and media, released on Thursday.
That wasn’t enough to get the Oklahoma City point guard a starting spot. Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Houston’s James Harden were the top two vote-getters among Western Conference guards, and they’ll be in the pool of 10 players who will start the game.
The frontcourt starters from the Western Conference are Golden State’s Kevin Durant and New Orleans’ Anthony
Davis and DeMarcus Cousins.
Boston’s Kyrie Irving and Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan will enter the starter pool in the Eastern Conference backcourt, joined up front by Cleveland’s LeBron James, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Curry and James received the most votes in their conferences and will serve as team captains, drafting from a pool of starters and reserves for next month’s game in Los Angeles.
It’s the first year for the new format, designed to spice up an All-Star Game that’s grown stale in recent years.
The reserves, 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. There will be seven reserves in each
conference — two in the backcourt, three in the frontcourt and two “wild card” backups.
Westbrook is a contender for a reserve spot, as are teammates Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
George finished fifth in the fan voting among Western Conference frontcourt players. He was sixth in player voting and seventh in media voting. Anthony finished ninth among Western Conference frontcourt players in voting by fans, players and media.
For the second straight season, starters were selected by weighted votes, with the fan vote accounting for 50 percent of the result, with voting by media and current players counting for 25 percent each.
Afflalo suspended two games
Orlando’s Aaron Afflalo has been suspended two games without pay by the NBA for fighting with Minnesota’s Nemanja Bjelica.
Afflalo punched Bjelica in the head in the fight that took place with 7:28 left in the second quarter of the Magic’s 108-102 victory on Tuesday.
Though both players were ejected after Bjelica put Afflalo in a headlock, only Afflalo was punished Thursday by NBA executive vice president of operations Kiki VanDeWeghe.
Afflalo missed Orlando’s game at Cleveland on Thursday and will miss Sunday’s game at Boston.