WITH all the National Basketball Association (NBA) teams having played between 58 and 60 games this season, the league took its annual break last weekend (February 18-20) for All-Stars 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The usual celebrity game and a match-up of rising stars kicked off the weekend last Friday, and they provided good precursors for the much-anticipated, action-packed Saturday and Sunday.

The Taco Bell Skills Challenge opened Saturday’s activities and was (surprisingly) very entertaining, which is a lot more than can be said for the AT&T Slam Dunk contest that would normally be the crescendo to close the night. With the memory of last year’s condensed, COVID-19-affected All-Star weekend something NBA fans would want to forget, there were very high expectations this year.

In 2021 the NBA pushed to get the mid-season showcase off the ground and managed (barely) to make it a success without fans because of novel coronavirus concerns. The festivities were shortened, and the slam dunk contest was executed during half-time of the all-star game with only three competitors because of the strict health protocols. Anfernee Simons of the Portland Trail Blazers was named champion with a kiss-the-rim dunk in which he didn’t manage to actually kiss the rim.

This year, with fans salivating for high drama in the slam dunk contest, the NBA was unable to recruit any all-stars like Ja Morant or past dunk contest champions like Zach LaVine, but the anticipation was still high. The result, however, was possibly the most painful and unwatchable dunk contest the NBA has ever showcased.

Yes, there were four contestants as normal — Cole Anthony (Orlando Magic), Juan Toscano-Anderson (Golden State Warriors), Obi Toppin (New York Knicks), Jalen Green (Houston Rockets) — and the two-round format returned with each contestant throwing down two dunks in the first round and the top two finishers advancing to the finals for two more dunks each, but that is where normal stopped and bizarre began.

The dunkers went 7-25 (28 per cent) in the first round with Green going 1-9 (11.1 per cent) on his first dunk. The dark horse in the field, Toscano-Anderson, got to the final with Toppin, and things really went downhill from there. Toppin basically won by default as his opponent didn’t even complete a dunk. He wound up executing a very impressive final dunk but, by that point, the taste of the event had soured to the point where his effort was severely underappreciated.

In a league where the athletic prowess of the players is now better than at any other time in history, the fans deserve better. Thankfully, earlier the same night, the Three-Point Contest provided a lot to cheer for — Minnesota Timberwolves’ centre Karl-Anthony Towns, who was at least a half-foot taller than his seven fellow competitors, scored 29 points in the final round to claim his first three-point contest title. Towns edged Atlanta Hawks’s guard Trae Young (26 points) and Los Angeles Clippers’ guard Luke Kennard (26 points) in a tight competition that unfortunately created an anticlimax for the closing event.

The superstars and celebrities came out on Sunday for the all-star game to watch Team LeBron take on Team Durant, and the game lived up to the hype. Kevin Durant was injured and did not play but LeBron James did play and hit the final shot to seal the 163-160 victory. However, the brightest star on the night was the Golden State Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry who not only broke Paul George’s NBA record for most three-pointers (9) in a single all-star game, but he completely decimated it and captured the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in the process.

Curry finished with 16 triples, en route to a 50-point outing, narrowly missing out on the all-star single-game record of 52 points set by Anthony Davis in 2017. He is one of the most prolific three-point shooters in NBA history and passed Ray Allen earlier this season to become the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers made. Curry is averaging 25.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists this season while shooting 42.7 per cent from the floor and 37.9 per cent from beyond the arc in 54 games.

At 33 years old Curry is once again in the league MVP conversation as he’s led the Warriors to a 42-17 record, good for second in the Western Conference behind the fire-hot Phoenix Suns (48-10) which stats have also propelled both teams into current JustBet joint-favourites for the title. In the Eastern Conference the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls went into the All-Star break, locked at 38-21 each, to lead the conference.

The season resumed last night and a full slate of games are scheduled for this weekend. The most anticipated games will see defending champions Milwaukee Bucks (fifth in the East) welcoming a revamped Brooklyn Nets (eighth in the East) tomorrow (Saturday) night, the Suns (first in the West) applying the heat to the Utah Jazz (fourth in the West) on Sunday afternoon, and the Warriors (second in the West) at home to the Dallas Mavericks (fifth in the West) on Sunday night.

There are 26 games on the slate for this weekend and a long way to go before the end of the season. With the recent shuffling of some teams (particularly the Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers) and the non-movement of others before the February 10 trade deadline (particularly the Los Angeles Lakers), there are interesting times ahead. Time will tell if some pieces fit and others don’t but, come what may, the action will be hot and intense – that’s Game!

JustBet continues to offer attractive betting options on all popular sports and events (including virtual games) as soon as they become available. Please visit one of the over 100 locations (or visit mobile.justbetja.com) for details and place your bets on the prediction of your choice for maximum winnings…… Get in the GAME!

2021/22 NBA Champion

Team Odds

Phoenix Suns 5.50

Golden State Warriors 5.50

Brooklyn Nets 6.50

Milwaukee Bucks 6.75

Philadelphia 76ers 7.75

Miami Heat 11.00

Utah Jazz 15.00

Boston Celtics 26.00

Chicago Bulls 26.00

Memphis Grizzlies 26.00

*Only top 10 odds shown (see website for full list).