2023 NBA All-Star Game: All you need to know about Sunday’s event

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The fans in Salt LakeCity used to serenade Donovan Mitchell with “MVP” chants when heplayed for the Utah Jazz, a sign of their appreciation andrespect.

He plays for Cleveland now. But he wouldn’t mind hearing thosecries again Sunday.

The 72nd NBA All-Star Game is Sunday night with almost all ofthe league’s biggest names set to take part in Utah.

Captains LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and GiannisAntetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will pick their teams beforethe game, leaving Team LeBron coach Michael Malone of the DenverNuggets and Team Giannis coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celticsabout five minutes to come up with an actual game plan.

“It never gets old,” Antetokounmpo said Saturday. “Every day,every time I step to my locker and I see my jersey with my name andI’m around all these great players, which are the best players inthe world, it’s always a great feeling. I never take it forgranted. God has blessed me enough to be seven times an All-Star sofar, and this might be my last one, so I try to enjoy to thefullest and appreciate every moment with the best players in theworld.”

And most of the best are indeed in Salt Lake City.

There’s James, who just passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become theNBA’s leading scorer. There’s Dallas’ Luka Doncic andPhiladelphia’s Joel Embiid, currently No. 1 and No. 2 in the NBAscoring race, both of them just over 33 points per game.Antetokounmpo and James also are averaging at least 30 points, asare Portland’s Damian Lillard, Oklahoma City’s ShaiGilgeous-Alexander and Boston’s Jayson Tatum.

“It’s always great just being out here with these guys,honestly,” DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls said. “I look forwardto just being able to compete. You know, we go against all theseguys all season, so just to kind of detach and play with these guysis definitely an honor.”

James will be honored at halftime with a ceremony to celebratehis passing Abdul-Jabbar for the scoring record.

“I think he’s probably going to slow down whenever he wants toslow down,” Toronto All-Star forward Pascal Siakam said. “It feelslike he can play forever. It looks like it.”

There’s never any real defense in these games until the fourthquarter, when players get serious, and there inevitably will be abunch of them scoring a bunch of points. After all, that’s been atrend this season: 20 times a player has scored 50 points in agame, a list topped by Mitchell scoring 71 for the Cavaliersagainst Chicago on Jan. 2.

He isn’t flat-out going for the MVP, but acknowledged that he’sthought about it.

“That would be nice,” Mitchell said. “I’m not going to try andshoot every shot, but close to every shot. Just have fun. That’sthe biggest thing is kind of going into these spaces and reallyappreciating the moment. It’d be great to win MVP. I’ve had a lotof full-circle moments this year. That would be another one.”

THE FORMAT

The first three quarters can be considered mini-games, with thescore starting at zero — but with the total score is still trackedbecause it comes into play later. The winning team in each quartergets $100,000 for their charity; if the quarter is a tie, thatmoney gets split.

In the fourth quarter, the total score from the first threequarters becomes the score again. The final target score will bethe leading team’s score to that point plus 24 points. There’s nogame clock, but there is a shot clock.

The winning team reaches the target score first. If the score isTeam LeBron 100, Team Giannis 99 entering the fourth, the winningscore would be 124. The winning team also picks up another $150,000for its charity.

MVP AWARD

The MVP award is named for Kobe Bryant, and there will be a newwinner this year. Last year’s MVP, Golden State guard StephenCurry, was voted into the game as a starter but is out with aninjury.

Antetokounmpo was MVP in 2021 and James has been All-Star MVPthree times, most recently in 2018. The only other past MVP in thisyear’s game is Kyrie Irving, the 2014 winner.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

There are six players in the All-Star Game who’ll be makingtheir debut: Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s De’AaronFox, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Indiana’s TyreseHaliburton, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., and — last but certainlynot least to Jazz fans — Utah’s Lauri Markkanen.

With those six names, there are now been 450 All-Stars in NBAhistory.

MOVING UP

If Antetokounmpo scores 26 points Sunday, that would put him at200 for his career in All-Star Games.

Only 10 other players have scored that many in their combinedAll-Star appearances: James, Bryant, Michael Jordan, KareemAbdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Oscar Robertson, Bob Pettit, JuliusErving, Elgin Baylor and Shaquille O’Neal.

Antetokounmpo has averaged 29 points in his six previousAll-Star Games — the most in NBA history for those who haveappeared in at least three games.

BACK IN UTAH

Salt Lake City becomes the 19th city (or region) to play host tomultiple All-Star Games. The Jazz also had the NBA’s midseasonshowcase in 1993.

Indianapolis joins that list next year when it plays host to theweekend’s events. It’ll be the first time that the Pacers’ homecity has been the All-Star site since 1985.