The NBA All-Star weekend does their skills competitions the right way. They keep them fairly consistent year to year and bring in guys who actually want to compete rather than forcing players to perform one or two skills. This keeps the competitions entertaining and competitive, and allows you to compare results from year to year.
This year the All-Star Festivities will begin on Friday night with the Celebrity Game and Rising Stars Tournament (broadcast in Canada on TSN). The Skills Competitions will take place Saturday night (starting at 5pm on TSN) with the 3-Point Contest, Shooting Stars, and Slam Dunk Contest taking center stage. The NBA All-Star Game tournament will then take place Sunday night starting at 5pm ET (Sportsnet).
I will give my pick for the winner of each skills competition event below using the odds found at SportsInteraction.com (odds from February 13th).
3-Point Contest
As you can see from the odds this competition is up for grabs this year. Rookie, Kon Knueppel, is the favourite, while two-time winner, Damian Lillard, is the next top contender.
I like Damian Lillard at odds of +400. He has the competition figured out and I expect him to be focused on winning his third title after losing last year.
Play: Damian Lillard 5.00
Slam Dunk Contest
With Mac McClung, winner of the past three dunk contests, not competing this year it’s really anyone’s competition to win. I’ll take the long odds on Jase Richardson.
Play: Jase Richardson 4.50
You can find all of these NBA All-Star weekend odds and many others at SportsInteraction.com by selecting ‘Basketball’ from the Sports menu, selecting ‘Events’ and ‘Futures’ and scrolling down the page. There are several betting markets for all All-Star skills competition events including Shooting Stars, which we didn’t outline above.
Tagged With : NBA All-Star Betting • NBA All-Star Game • NBA betting