NBA All Star Weekend Predictions

This weekend is NBA All Star weekend.  As I've mentioned before, the game itself doesn't appeal to me much, but I do enjoy the other events.  I thought it'd be fun to try and predict the winners for all the events.  So here I go.

FRIDAY

I don't usually watch the Friday night stuff, but since Mike and Mike (from Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN) are coaching the Celebrity Game, I have a little interest.  Probably not enough to watch the whole thing, but at least, like, 2 minutes maybe.  I think I know of 3 people participating in the game.  Ok, I've already talked too much about the Celebrity Game.  I'll say the team coached by Mike Greenberg will win.  Why?  I don't know.  Why are you questioning me on this?

The other game on Friday is the Rising Stars Challenge.  This is the game made up of 1st and 2nd year players.  This year they're doing USA vs The World.  I'll probably watch as much of this as I will the Celebrity Game.  However, I do know who's playing in this game, and I would give a very slight edge to team USA.  Even though this is an exhibition game, I won't be surprised if it comes down to the wire because the teams are so even.

Winner - Team USA

SATURDAY

The night starts off with with Shooting Stars Challenge.  I'm going to keep with the Friday night flow on this one and keep it short.  I'll pick Team Curry, which consists of Steph Curry, Dell Curry and Sue Bird.  I can't say I know much about Sue Bird, but I do know that the Currys can shoot the rock, and that's what this contest is all about.    

Winner - Team Curry

The next event is the Skills Challenge.  This event is hard to predict because usually there's only 1 or 2 guys that actually try hard.  This year there's no "super-star" in the group (John Wall dropped out due to injury).  The defending champ, Trey Burke, is in it again, but I don't think he'll win.  I'm going to go with Brandon Knight.  He's having a great year and is a good all-around player, which is what you need to be in this event.  Plus he got snubbed for the All Star Game.  Motivation, thy name is snubbery.  Look for Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry and Jeff Teague to have respectable showings as well.

Winner - Brandon Knight

Now is my favorite event of the weekend; the Three Point Contest.  Unlike the Slam Dunk Contest, big named players do participate here.  And this year has some good ones with Steph Curry and James Harden leading the way.  Here's the rest of the roster:

J.J. Redick
Kyrie Irving
Klay Thompson
Kyle Korver
Marco Belinelli (defending champ)
Wesley Matthews

Not gonna' lie, I didn't know Matthews was a good shooter.  But as for the rest of the lineup, it's legit, which makes this anyone's game.  I could cop out and go with Curry since he's possibly the best shooter in the NBA, but I don't think he's going to win.  I think he's more of an off the dribble/shot creator type of shooter.  That doesn't work well here.  I'm going to go with Kyle Korver.  His form, unlike Curry's, is perfect for this.  He's a "catch and shoot" guy, and that's essentially what this contest is.  It also helps that he's on pace to break the NBA single season 3-point percentage mark.  He's shooting almost 53% from deep.  Take a minute to drink that in.  There are guys who can't shoot 53% from the free-throw line.  So that's why I'm taking Korver.  Pretty good reasons.  I think Harden, Redick and Thompson will also put on a good show.

Winner - Kyle Korver

Now onto what used to be the premiere event of the evening,  but has recently become actually quite boring; the Slam Dunk Contest.  Before I get into the event itself, I want to give a special thanks to fantasy basketball for allowing me to know who the hell these guys are that are participating.  Ok, here are the contestants:

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Zach LaVine
Victor Oladipo
Mason Plumlee

I'll be shocked if 1 of those guys wins, and that's Plumlee.  He's a center/power forward, and aside from Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard, these guys don't have a tendency to be too agile or nimble. 

No knock on Oladipo, but I think this will come down to Antetokounmpo and LaVine.  The reason for LaVine is because a lot of people have said that this is his to lose.  I only know him as the 2nd string point guard in Minnesota, so I'll have to assume all of these people know what they're talking about.  And the reason for Antetokounmpo is because of his length.  He's athletic with crazy long arms.  Those will come in handy, because he won't have to be right on top of the rim to stuff it down, unlike some other guys (cough, Oladipo, cough). 

In the end, I'll pick:

Winner - Giannis Antetokounmpo 

As for the boring All Star Game itself, I'll go with the West to win because they're stacked with quality scorers.  And since there's no defense played, guys like Harden, Curry, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant will put on a scoring clinic. 

Winner - West...I guess

That's it for now because I'm out of things to say, and I'm suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome from typing Antetokounmpo so many times.  Enjoy the weekend.