We know the captains. We know the players. However, we don’t know who will be playing with who when the NBA All-Star game tips off on Sunday. Most of the event has remained the same with this being the sixth year of the current format that has team captains selecting their roster through a draft process. As leading vote-getters in their respective conference, LeBron James (West) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (East) will serve as captains. New this year is the player draft taking place just before the scheduled start of the game making betting choices a bit more difficult. Still, it’s just an exhibition and you should take your wagering as seriously as the players take the game. James has enjoyed plenty of success as captain in the current format picking the winning roster in each of the last five years. The captains will pick their roster from a pool of starters and reserves regardless of position or conference affiliation.
The 72nd NBA All-Star Game takes place at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 19, 2023, from Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, UT and will air live on TNT and TBS. Visit BookMaker.eu for a complete list of betting odds and props for All-Star Sunday.
NBA All-Star Game Odds
Team LeBron (Check Back Later)
Team Giannis (Check Back Later)
Over/Under (Check Back Later)
NBA Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
The Rosters
As the top overall vote-getter James will have the first pick when the draft is conducted roughly 30 minutes before scheduled tip-off. We only have past results to go on for an informed wager and James is a good captain to bet on. He’s selected the winning roster in all five previous games in which the schoolyard draft was used and twice beat Giannis when The Freak was captain in 2019 and 2020. James also beat Steph Curry and Kevin Durant twice. So maybe there is a method to his selection process and James has the first overall pick once again.
The eight starters are selected first with that pool of players ravaged by injuries. Durant, Curry and Zion Williamson were selected as starters but will not play due to injuries replaced instead by Joel Embiid, Lauri Markkanen and Ja Morant. Other injury replacements added to the pool of players includes guards Anthony Edwards and De’Aaron Fox and forward Pascal Siakam. It’s hard to say if a team has an advantage considering we have a collection of the best players in the world.
2023 All-Star Game Format
The league did away with the outdated East vs. West format a few years ago moving to the captain and draft format. James has served as a captain every year since the format was instituted and his team has won every game. The 2020 All-Star Game was the first to use a target score to determine the winner. Each of the first three quarters begin with the score 0-0 with teams competing for their respective charities over 12 minutes. At the start of the fourth quarter the game clock is turned off and the final ‘target score’ is set.
The target score is determined by taking the leading team’s total cumulative score through three quarters and adding 24 points. The 24 is to honor the late Kobe Bryant. There is no clock for the final frame instead the first team to reach or surpass the target score is declared the winner. Team Durant had a 139-138 edge after three quarters in last year’s game with 24 added to the total making the target score 163. Ironically it was James with the walk-off turnaround jumper giving his team a 163-160 victory.
Betting Angle
We’re either getting a close game or a blow out based on previous results using the draft format. And we are going to see plenty of points on the board. Last year’s game was the third decided by three points or less since the format change. The other two had margins of 14 and 20 points. The common denominator in all of them is James as captain of the winning club. However, things will be different since James’ first two picks the previous two games were Giannis and Curry. He’ll have to find a different path to victory in 2023.
Things were getting out of control prior to the target score being introduced. The 2017 game saw the West win 192-182 in the highest scoring game in ASG history. The previous high was the season before with the West winning 196-173. We won’t see games with that many points as long as the current score format is used, though the average score of the previous four games was 324.25 points.
NBA All-Star Game Odds Pick
Since we don’t know the rosters it’s hard to back a team. James has won every game under the draft format giving him a likely edge at the betting window. And if the total emerges around the 320 range betting the OVER looks like a smart play since everybody competing can score the basketball.
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