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With the game happening tonight, i think this is been the most entertaining weekend of all-star events. Celeb game, Rising Stars, the elimination of the shooting contest thing, adding big men to the skills challenge, 3 pt shootout and the Gordon-Levine show were all great. Hoping for an entertaining game tonight and for John to play 10 minutes because anything more doesnt help the team prepare for the "stretch" run.

Wall doing his best to prove he should've been starting in the ASG.

Wall played very well.

I never watch the All Star Games, but I just checked out the box score.

WTF?

196-173? The West had 80 3-point attempts? Were people even bothering to go back and pretend to play defense? Or did they just have one guy back on defense to inbound the ball after a made basket and throw it to the other 4 guys standing on the offensive end?

Wall was easily Easts second best player behind Paul George who chucked his brains out. If wall started I suggest east would've been a lot closer.

Westbrook chucked his way to a back to back mvp.

nate33 wrote:I never watch the All Star Games, but I just checked out the box score.

WTF?

196-173? The West had 80 3-point attempts? Were people even bothering to go back and pretend to play defense? Or did they just have one guy back on defense to inbound the ball after a made basket and throw it to the other 4 guys standing on the offensive end?

Pretty much. Also, the pace and space hit the ASG. Most penetration led to kick outs. About the only twos were put backs and the occasional Aldridge or Anthony ISO.

long suffrin' boulez fan wrote:

nate33 wrote:I never watch the All Star Games, but I just checked out the box score.

WTF?

196-173? The West had 80 3-point attempts? Were people even bothering to go back and pretend to play defense? Or did they just have one guy back on defense to inbound the ball after a made basket and throw it to the other 4 guys standing on the offensive end?

Pretty much. Also, the pace and space hit the ASG. Most penetration led to kick outs. About the only twos were put backs and the occasional Aldridge or Anthony ISO.

It must have been awful to watch. Just nothing but wide open 3's because I'm assuming the defense wasn't scrambling desperately to close out on shooters.

Wall was the second best player on the east team tonight! He did a great job! NO D WHAT SO EVER FROM ANYONE! The west being dicks and purposefully stopping PG from getting that record.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/monumentalntwrk/status/699100924590059520[/tweet]

nate33 wrote:I never watch the All Star Games, but I just checked out the box score.

WTF?

196-173? The West had 80 3-point attempts? Were people even bothering to go back and pretend to play defense? Or did they just have one guy back on defense to inbound the ball after a made basket and throw it to the other 4 guys standing on the offensive end?

Same reaction here. I was like "196? 196!!!??"

this is bull. I'd like to see them real game, even after the season. But real, with tactics, with skills. This is not the basketball I'd like to watch.

anyway - I've seen dunk contest video ... pretty impressive! first time in years I was actually enjoying this show.

krii wrote:anyway - I've seen dunk contest video ... pretty impressive! first time in years I was actually enjoying this show.

Yeah, me too. The Aaron Gordon under both legs was the dunk of the night. I agree that Levine won the bonus dunks, but they should have some way of recognizing the best individual dunk even if that player didn't have the highest total score.

Also enjoyed the 3pt competition. Basically my fellow lightskin brotha's represented all Saturday night! Told ya'll we was coming back!

The game is an exhibition for the fans. It's fun for what it is. I like seeing the star players having fun and goofing around together. Taking 35 foot threes and trying to pull off crazy dunks.

I was rooting for the West to get to 200. Annoyed me how close they came to getting it. If Westbrook and Curry had dribbled in closer on their three point attempts in the final minute they would have broken it easily. I wanted to see Pop put out a line up of Curry, Thompson, Harden, Leonard, and Durant and tell them not to shoot any twos.

It's clear that almost all of the good three point shooters were in the West and almost all of the good dunkers were in the East. To make the game more fun and even and to incentivize twos, they should start making dunks count as three points in next year's game.

Regarding Wall, it's stunning how effortlessly he gets everyone good shots. We take it for granted watching him every game. But you really noticed it last night whenever Wall decided to back off. As soon as the ball left his hands and it was time for someone else to create, you ended up with DeRozan chucking a bunch of awful shots and Pau Gasol shooting threes. The only other guy who has the same level of competency as a playmaker was Chris Paul. The level of control Wall exerts over his offense is amazing. Ours would be so **** horrible without him.

The best players in the East are
1.) LeBron
2a.) George
2b.) Wall

And then there is a big drop to number three. John and Paul George are clearly the future of the conference. Would love to see them team up after their rookie extensions are over like LeBron and Wade did. In DC of course.

I respect that some people like that stuff, but none of the all-star break stuff really appeals to me. It's not really basketball.

Its for fun, you have to realize that these guys are just guys, you can see that they have fun out there, it takes it back to fun for them not just the money and competition.

stevemcqueen1 wrote:The best players in the East are
1.) LeBron
2a.) George
2b.) Wall

And then there is a big drop to number three. John and Paul George are clearly the future of the conference. Would love to see them team up after their rookie extensions are over like LeBron and Wade did. In DC of course.

Don't forget Jimmy Butler.

I would also contend the drop off is not that big at if you include guys like Drummond, Irving, and Love, but I would also put Wall ahead of those guys.

The question is if Wall can get some help. The Wizards need to do a better job in playing well without Wall on the court so they don't have to play Wall excessive minutes. Guys like Beal and Porter are going to have improve. I hope someone like Oubre develops so the Wizards would actually have depth. This season in the short term may already be lost because the Wizards poor start but at least they have Wall going forward.

gambitx777 wrote:Its for fun, you have to realize that these guys are just guys, you can see that they have fun out there, it takes it back to fun for them not just the money and competition.

And that's fine. I might even enjoy some of it if so-called celebrities weren't involved - particularly one from Canada.

Kanyewest wrote:Don't forget Jimmy Butler.

I would also contend the drop off is not that big at if you include guys like Drummond, Irving, and Love, but I would also put Wall ahead of those guys.

The question is if Wall can get some help. The Wizards need to do a better job in playing well without Wall on the court so they don't have to play Wall excessive minutes. Guys like Beal and Porter are going to have improve. I hope someone like Oubre develops so the Wizards would actually have depth. This season in the short term may already be lost because the Wizards poor start but at least they have Wall going forward.

I would definitely put Butler 4th, but still think there is a pretty sizable drop from Wall and George to him.

I think Kyrie has the potential to be in the same tier as Wall and George, but that he's far too one dimensional right now to be close to them. Kyrie has the DNA and offensive ability of a superstar though. I could see the lightbulb eventually clicking on for him like it did for Westbrook.

Love is what he is at this point IMO. He's a highly valuable specialist. He's one of the best role players in the league. But he's too flawed and his skill set is too narrow to ever be the guy for a good team like Wall and George. I also don't think he has the personality for it.

I think the same is probably true for Drummond, although unlike Love, he has game changing size. But he is far from the caliber of offensive player of the rest of the names we've mentioned. Frankly I think there is an enormous gap between Drummond and Wall/George and also a big one between him and Butler/Irving. I don't think Drummond is ever going to have the offensive ability to be a superstar, not even Dwight was less skilled. His shooting touch is awful. Among the worst in the NBA. No post game and scoring instincts are undeveloped. I think his future is as a DeAndre Jordan type, and the fact that Drummond is one of the top six or seven players in the East shows how much better and deeper the top of the West is. DeAndre Jordan doesn't even rank among their top 12.

I used to love the All-Star game. I started watching this one, but turned it off in the first quarter. Real games are soooo much better.

The dunk contest between Lavine and Gordon IMO had the best dunks I've ever seen by NBA caliber players. I know Carter had the swag and athletic ability back in the day... but those mixtape dunk stuff that those two were doing...

Gordon should have won though.