When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up fornow and never miss the top F1 stories again The 2019 NBA All-Star weekend gets underway this evening with a whole host of events for fans to tune in to. The Celebrity Game will feature an array of singers, artists, actors as well as former NBA and WNBA players while the Rising Stars Challenge will follow suit with a number of the best young players in the league. NBA Saturday Night is always a huge pull with three entertaining events: The Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Dunk Contest. Then the main event with Team LeBron taking on Team Giannis in the second year of the new format.<doc-sep>The Nets will have four players —more than any other NBA team— participating in three events, one each night of All-Star Weekend. Here’s the schedule and details, from the Nets. MTN DEW ICE Rising Stars Friday, February 15 9 p.m. TNT Jarrett Allen and Rodions Kurucs will face off in this game featuring first- and second-year NBA players. Allen moved into Brooklyn’s starting lineup midway through his rookie season, and the second-year center has started all 57 games he’s played this season, elevating his points per game (11.2) and rebounds per game (8.6). He’s 11th in the NBA in field goal percentage (57.2) and 12th in blocks per game. Kurucs, selected 40th overall in last June’s draft, has started 29 games for the Nets, averaging 8.8 points and 3.6 rebounds. Allen will play for Team U.S., while Latvia’s Kurucs will play for Team World. MTN DEW 3-Point Contest Saturday, February 16 8 p.m. TNT Joe Harris will take on defending champion Devin Booker and two other former 3-Point Contest champions, plus four 2019 All-Stars -- count Steph Curry in both categories -- as he makes his All-Star Weekend debut. Harris goes into the All-Star break as the NBA’s No. 2 3-point shooter (47.1 percent) and is fifth among all active NBA players in career 3-point shooting (42.1 percent). Since Jan. 1, 2018, Harris is shooting 46.9 from 3-point range over 98 games. The 3-Point Contest is part of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, which includes the Taco Bell Skills Challenge -- won last season by Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwididdie -- and AT&T Slam Dunk. Television coverage begins at 8 p.m. and the 3-Point Contest will be the second event. Sunday, February 17 7 p.m. (tip-off 8:20 p.m.) TNT/TBS D’Angelo Russell will play for Team Giannis as the fourth-year guard makes his first NBA All-Star Game appearance. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James selected their teams as the leading voters among the starters for their respective conferences. Russell was the fifth of Antetokounmpo’s seven selections from the pool of reserve players. Russell heads to Charlotte averaging career highs in points (20.3), assists (6.6), field goal percentage (43.6) and 3-point field goal percentage (37.2). We’ll be covering the weekend and wish our guys success.<doc-sep>Getty NBA All-Star Weekend 2019 picks back up again on Saturday with a trio of events that many fans look forward to more than the All-Star Game itself. Tonight’s action will feature the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Dunk Contest. The latter two are especially popular and that should be no different this year with a number of strong competitors in both fields. The Three-Point Shootout is especially loaded with veteran talent and could be one of the most hotly contested events in quite some time. If you aren’t already on the edge of your seat waiting for these competitions to begin, there’s always the option of having a wager or two down on the outcomes. The sportsbooks have released some prop bets for all of Saturday’s events, most notably for which player will emerge victorious in each. Vegas is liking Luka Doncic, the sensational Dallas Mavericks rookie, to win the Skills Challenge, while Steph Curry—well on his way to breaking nearly every long-distance record as the league’s greatest shooter ever—is the odds-on pick to claim his second Three-Point Contest trophy. In the Dunk Contest, the books have tabbed Dennis Smith Jr., who was sent to the New York Knicks at the trade deadline as part of the Kristaps Porzingis deal, as slight chalk in his second consecutive appearance in the contest. If you are looking for advice on how to bet All-Star Saturday night, you’ve come to the right place. Pro handicapper Jon Price of SportsInformationTraders.com has provided his picks for the winner of the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Dunk Contest, which you can find below. Before seeing who the Vegas expert likes to bring back some hardware from Charlotte, have a look at the complete schedule, starting times, TV and live streaming info, updated odds and more for every 2019 NBA All-Star event: 2019 NBA All-Star Weekend Schedule And Odds Time (ET) / TV Event Odds Total Saturday, Feb. 16 8 p.m. (TNT) -1st Event Skills Challenge See Below - 8 p.m. (TNT) – 2nd Event Three-Point Contest See Below - 8 p.m. (TNT) – 3rd Event Dunk Contest See Below - Sunday, Feb. 17 8 p.m. (TNT) All-Star Game LeBron -6.5 300 Events live streaming via TNTDrama.com / WatchTNT app. Click for full 2019 NBA All-Star Game rosters. All NBA All-Star Weekend odds courtesy of BetDSI Sportsbook 2019 NBA Skills Challenge Odds And Prediction Participant Odds Luka Doncic +250 Nikola Jokic +300 De'Aaron Fox +350 Trae Young +400 Jayson Tatum +600 Mike Conley +700 Kyle Kuzma +800 Nikola Vucevic +1000 The Skills Challenge is an event that versatile players tend to do best in. It pits eight NBA players—usually younger ones, but an occasional veteran or two gets in the mix each year—against one another in a competition that tests their capabilities as shooters, passers, dribblers and more. Guards historically had the most success in this competition, but recently bigger players have started finding some success. Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns won in 2017 and 2016, respectively, showing that seven-footers can compete. One trend amongst these two recent Skills Challenge champs—and a few others—is that they were heavily discounted by the oddsmakers prior to the event. Porzingis had the second-worst odds of the eight competitors when he won, while Towns was dead last on the odds list. Last year’s champ, Spencer Dinwiddie, was also the largest underdog in the field. This shows just how truly unpredictable the Skills Challenge can be to bet, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to handicap. Those that believe the bigs will once again flourish can find great value on Nikola Vucevic, who fits the trend of being a seven-footer as well as the dark horse in the race. The other Nikola in this event, Nikola Jokic, has much better odds for a big man, but that may stem from his prior experience. The Denver Nuggets star competed in the Skills Challenge two years ago as an injury replacement for Joel Embiid and knows exactly what to expect tonight. That has to give him an edge and the books seem to agree. Still, the odds-on favorite will be hard to ignore. Luka Doncic has been one of the most impressive players in the NBA this season after being selected third overall by the Mavericks last June. The shoo-in for Rookie of the Year has the type of skill set that most players could only dream of possessing and that gives him a clear leg up over the rest of the field. He’s coming off a mediocre performance in the Rising Stars Game—13 points, five rebounds and nine assists—and will look to bounce back in this event. Don’t sleep on the Slovenian superstar to add the first of what should be many pieces of hardware to his trophy case tonight in the Skills Challenge. Historic numbers. Massive following. Praise from legends. Luka Doncic is taking over pic.twitter.com/YeFHjaWQvD — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 15, 2019 Pick: Luka Doncic (+250) 2019 NBA Three-Point Contest Odds And Prediction Participant Odds Stephen Curry +200 Seth Curry +250 Devin Booker +400 Buddy Hield +500 Damian Lillard +700 Danny Green +900 Joe Harris +1000 Khris Middleton +1000 Kemba Walker +1200 Dirk Nowitzki +1500 As the de facto host of NBA All-Star Weekend 2019, Steph Curry is of course going to be the fan favorite for the Three-Point Contest taking place in his native Charlotte. He’s also unsurprisingly the odds-on favorite at the sportsbooks despite a two-year layoff from the event. Curry last competed in the 2016 Three-Point Shootout when he failed to defend his 2015 title against Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson. Still, Curry has a mixed history in this event, having been knocked out in the first round in the 2013 and 2014 competitions. He’s definitely going to be a threat, but far from a lock when he takes the court later this evening. One of the biggest threats to Curry will be his own brother, Seth Curry, who is now with the Portland Trail Blazers. The younger Curry is also expected to show out in his native state and could surprise people. Seth hasn’t had nearly the same career successes as his older brother, but he is a highly respectable marksman in his own right. That isn’t shocking by any means, considering both brothers were raised and trained by Dell Curry, a Charlotte Hornets legend that competed in two Three-Point Contests during his 16-year NBA career. Unlike Steph, Dell never won the event and it may be because of his extracurricular activities leading up to the event. According to Yahoo! Sports, this was the advice that Dell had for his boys: My pops, his advice when he did it, was don't do what he did and go out the night before 'til the sun comes up. He's like, 'the person that wants to win the most, is the one that's gonna go to bed the earliest and not go out the night before.' I appreciated that. Steph Curry predicted he’s going to win this event and beat his brother in the process: Steph knows who’s gonna win the 3-point contest pic.twitter.com/i6xScExCC8 — Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 15, 2019 While the Curry’s might be favored, they’ll still have to get past last year’s champion in Devin Booker. The rising Phoenix Suns star set a Three-Point Contest record with 28 points—out of a possible 34—one year ago and is now 4-1 to defend his crown. Booker’s odds are much higher this time around, as he was one of the largest underdogs in his inaugural appearance. No one will be underestimating the 22-year-old now that he’s shown what he can do on this stage, so it will be interesting to see if he can perform with the pressure on. Perhaps the most intriguing player in this event is one who will be hanging up his sneakers after the 2018-19 NBA season comes to a close. Dirk Nowitzki is set to compete in his sixth and final Three-Point Contest after an 11-year hiatus. The Dallas Mavericks legend only won once back in 2006, but could end his career with yet another historic moment.<doc-sep>
Tony Dejak/Associated Press The NBA All-Star Game received a refreshing boost a year ago, when the format was altered to two teams selected by captains. The 2019 edition of the All-Star Game will try to bank off the momentum of the competitive contest at Staples Center to further reinforce how much the format change was needed. For the second year in a row, LeBron James is a captain of one squad, and his team will be opposed by a team captained by Giannis Antetokounmpo. Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone will be in charge of Team LeBron sideline, while the Milwaukee Bucks' Mike Budenholzer teams up with two of his star players as head coach of Team Giannis. 2019 NBA All-Star Game Information Start Time: 8 p.m. ET Video Play Button Videos you might like TV: TNT Live Stream: TNT app or TNTDrama.com. Format For the second consecutive season, the All-Star Game rosters were chosen through a draft, headlined by the top two players in the fan vote. James and Antetokounmpo alternated selections in the draft to select their respective rosters, with the starters chosen first. The game itself is your typical regulation basketball game that lasts four quarters, but the All-Star Game is typically more high-scoring than regular-season or playoff contests. Team LeBron Starters LeBron James Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving Kawhi Leonard James Harden Reserves Anthony Davis Klay Thompson Damian Lillard Ben Simmons LeMarcus Aldridge Karl-Anthony Towns Bradley Beal Dwayne Wade Team Giannis Starters Giannis Antetokounmpo Stephen Curry Joel Embiid Paul George Kemba Walker Reserves Khris Middleton Nikola Jokic Russell Westbrook Blake Griffin D'Angelo Russell Nikola Vucevic Kyle Lowry Dirk Nowitzki Prediction Team LeBron 151, Team Giannis 144 Sunday's game should follow the trend set by the 2018 edition, as more defense will be played once the second half begins. In the two previous years before the format change, the victorious team scored more than 190 points, and while more offense is good, the crowd also appreciates a bit of defense during some stretches of the contest. On paper, Team LeBron has the stronger roster and is chock-full of experienced stars on both the starters and reserves list. The two-time All-Star captain and James Harden should burden most of the scoring responsibilities at the start for Team LeBron, while Kawhi Leonard will be tasked with being the team's defensive stopper. LM Otero/Associated Press The one advantage Team Giannis should have from the start is its paint presence, as Joel Embiid and Antetokounmpo should receive opportunities to score down low with no traditional frontcourt star in the Team LeBron starting five. But once Team LeBron starts to make adjustments, that will change, as Anthony Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and LaMarcus Aldridge will rotate on to the floor. Team LeBron's scoring rhythm shouldn't be hampered at any stage, either, with Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal coming off the bench. The Team Giannis bench is made up of first-time All-Stars and a few veterans, and how those groups of players mesh together will be crucial to the squad's success. Russell Westbrook and Blake Griffin should be the driving forces off the bench to start for Team Giannis before D'Angelo Russell, Khris Middleton and others take over the scoring duties. Tyler Kaufman/Associated Press The only concern for Team Giannis is it might lack chemistry from the start, which won't be a problem for Team LeBron, which boasts stars who have played with or against each other for years and know all of the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates. With four first-time All-Star selections on its roster, Team Giannis may be forced to come back after dealing with some first-half struggles. The fourth quarter will be decided by James, who is a three-time All-Star Most Valuable Player, Harden, Antetokounmpo and a few others. While the final score will be close, the advantage opened up by Team LeBron in the first half will be enough to keep it ahead until the final buzzer. Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.