The NBA All-Star Game is Sunday night from Charlotte, but there are plenty of betting opportunities for the three unique events on Saturday night.
Skills Challenge Odds
All-Star Saturday gets underway with the Skills Challenge, which is what it sounds like. If you watched the NHL’s version a few weeks ago, it’s much the same thing only on the hardwood. Essentially, it’s a test of speed, ball-handling, passing and shooting ability with two competitors battling on an obstacle course. The player with the best time advances, but in order to make it interesting the league has one half of the bracket with guards and the other half with bigger guys.
The defending champion is Spencer Dinwiddie of the Nets, but he’s injured and thus couldn’t defend. The previous two years, big guys won it: Kristaps Porzingis (then of Knicks) and Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves). Canadian Steve Nash won this event twice. No Raptors are in the field or have ever won this event.
3-Point Contest Odds
The second event of Saturday is the 3-Point Contest with a field of 10. It’s a two-round timed competition with five stations around the 3-point arc. Four racks have regular balls worth one point each and a fifth multicolored “money” ball worth two points. The fifth rack is an all “money” ball one. Guys have one minute to shoot them all. The three players with the highest scores advance to the championship round.
Brothers Stephen and Seth Curry make this very interesting with Stephen arguably the greatest 3-point shooter in league history but Seth actually leading the NBA in percentage. They grew up in Charlotte, where father Dell, a former NBA sharp-shooter, does TV work for the Hornets. Stephen won the contest in 2015. All-time great Dirk Nowitzki also is in the field in his final NBA season. He won it in in 2006, the only 7-footer to ever do so. Toronto’s Danny Green is in the field but a longer shot. It’s his first-ever appearance.
Slam Dunk Contest Odds
This used to be the highlight of All-Star weekend, even more so than the game in many regards. Those days, however, are in the past as star players are avoiding this contest like the plague. It’s more about theatrics and props now than actually dunking. In the two-round event, participants can perform any dunk they choose. Five judges rank every dunk with a highest total score of 50. The two with the highest combined scores in the first round advance to a head-to-head final.
Unless you are a devout NBA fan, you may not even have heard of three of the competitors: rookies Miles Bridges (Hornets) and Hamidou Diallo (Thunder) and second-year Hawks forward John Collins. The Knicks’ Dennis Smith Jr. rounds out the field; he finished third a year ago while with Dallas.
All-Star Predictions
The Mavericks’ Luka Doncic in Skills Challenge, Suns’ Devin Booker in 3-Point Contest, and Hornets’ Bridges in Dunk Contest.
