All-Star Game: All you need to know
The fans in Salt Lake City used to serenade Donovan Mitchell with “MVP” chants when he played for the Utah Jazz, a sign of their appreciation and respect.
He plays for Cleveland now. But he wouldn’t mind hearing those cries again Sunday.
The 72nd NBA All-Star Game is Sunday night with almost all of the league’s biggest names set to take part in Utah.
Captains LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will pick their teams before the game, leaving Team LeBron coach Michael Malone of the Denver Nuggets and Team Giannis coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics about five minutes to come up with an actual game plan.
And most of the best are indeed in Salt Lake City.
There’s James, who just passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s leading scorer. There’s Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, currently No. 1 and No. 2 in the NBA scoring race, both of them just over 33 points per game. Antetokounmpo and James also are averaging at least 30 points, as are Portland’s Damian Lillard, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.
• THE FORMAT: The first three quarters can be considered mini-games, with the score starting at zero — but with the total score is still tracked because it comes into play later. The winning team in each quarter gets $100,000 for their charity; if the quarter is a tie, that money gets split.
In the fourth quarter, the total score from the first three quarters becomes the score again. The final target score will be the leading team’s score to that point plus 24 points. There’s no game clock, but there is a shot clock.
The winning team reaches the target score first.
• WELCOME TO THE SHOW: There are six players in the All-Star Game who’ll be making their debut: Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., and — last but certainly not least to Jazz fans — Utah’s Lauri Markkanen.
With those six names, there are now been 450 AllStars in NBA history.