The 2023 NBA All-Star Game is officially in the books as Team Giannis defeated Team LeBron 184-175 to give the league’s all-time scoring champion his first loss as All-Star Game captain. Ahead of tonight James held a perfect 5-0 as the format of the game was changed to allow the top two voters to act as captains and pick their own teams. In the end, Jayson Tatum stole the show as the Celtics star earned MVP honors after breaking Anthony Davis’ All-Star Game record with 55 points in the win.
Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Kyrie Irving, Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Lauri Markkanen and Ja Morant started alongside LeBron and Giannis. Damian Lillard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jaylen Brown highlighted the reserve list. In the end, it was Damian Lillard who was picked first overall by Team Giannis during the player draft prior to playing with Team LeBron, making Anthony Edwards their first pick. The full rosters for the game are below:
Team LeBron | Team Giannis |
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves | Damian Lillard, Portland Trailblazer |
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics | Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks |
Paul George, Los Angeles Clippers | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder |
Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers | DeMar DeRozanChicago Bulls |
Julius Randle, New York Knicks | Pascal Siakam, Toronto Raptors |
De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings | Bam Adebayo, Miami Heat |
Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies | Domantas Sabonis, Kings of Sacramento |
Joel Embid, Philadelphia 76ers | Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics |
Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks | Yes Morant, Memphis Grizzlies |
Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks | Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers |
Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets | Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz |
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers | Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks |
The All-Star Game crowned an eventful weekend in Salt Lake City. The Pelicans’ Jose Alvarado was named MVP of the Rising Stars Game on Friday night before Mac McClung stole the show at Saturday night’s dunk contest. Tatum finally gave the All-Star weekend the arc with his record-breaking performance to cap a successful celebration of the game’s elite.
Here are the three biggest takeaways from Sunday’s game.
1. Some players are better suited to the All-Star Game than others.
Luka Doncic, a starter in another All-Star Game, scored just four points for Team LeBron on Sunday. That drags down his All-Star score average, which before this one was a robust eight points per All-Star game. Nikola Jokic also scored four points, and he had a worst minus 16 plus minus game. “I’m not destined for this game,” Jokic said after the game. He raised an interesting point.
Is there a template for what kind of players are most successful in this game? Apparently yes. Take Damian Lillard, who was averaging 18 points per All-Star Game before Sunday and had another 26 for Team Giannis tonight. Kyrie Irving scored a similar 32 points and won that game’s MVP award in 2014. It seems like you can thrive best in this game if you’re a small, athletic guard who can make 3-point bundles.
It makes intuitive sense. This is a fast-paced entertainment game. Doncic and Jokic like to play at their own slower pace. They produce a lot of highlights, but this environment just isn’t ideal for them.
2. The new trend for injured stars?
We saw something interesting in the opening moments of the All-Star game. Giannis Antetokounmpo, a captain, scored a quick dunk, committed a deliberate foul, and then left the game. That was apparently the plan that came into the night. Antetokounmpo is struggling with a wrist injury. Not only did it leave Team Giannis undermanned, but it also robbed fans of one of the game’s main draws.
That’s probably one of the reasons why his status wasn’t revealed ahead of the game. In theory, it would have made more sense for the NBA to simply replace Antetokounmpo with another high-profile player who was in All-Star Weekend for a different event. It didn’t, and the explanations are all relatively nefarious. Aside from wanting Antetokounmpo as a tie, it just makes sense for the league to limit the number of players that appear in an All-Star game, as players with an All-Star appearance on their résumé tend to do so to use this as leverage in contract negotiations. Some even have all-star incentives in their contracts.
There were other injured players who were ruled out well before Sunday’s All-Star game. Antetokounmpo’s injury came on Wednesday. That’s theoretically enough time to find a replacement, but the league has chosen not to do so. It’s worth asking yourself at this point if this will be the norm in the future. Aside from harming the actual All-Star product, it poses serious problems for a league now heavily invested in the sports betting industry. If the NBA wants to generate interest through gambling, it might not be the best look for fans to bet on Antetokounmpo to be MVP, or for his team to win the game (which it ultimately did). Given that impact, the league will likely need to be a bit more transparent about things like this in order to move forward.
3. The All-Star format is in dire need of tweaking
Almost half of the shots taken on Sunday were 3-pointers (126 out of 255). The combination of Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, and Donovan Mitchell combined accounted for approximately 62 percent of Team Giannis’ shot attempts (77 of 123). That should give you a rough idea of the type of game we saw on Sunday. Both teams walked up the court with the ball and either picked up a 3-pointer or went into a dunk or layup. The few players that got hot monopolized the ball, making the game a functional 3-point contest.
The All-Star Game is almost always like this to some extent. Players will not put energy into defense in an exhibition. If they can avoid walking across the floor, they will. But it never felt more obvious than on Sunday, when so many big-name players were out. Take a look at your social media platform of choice and you’ll see fans complaining about what a boring game we just watched.
The NBA tried to fix this by adding the Elam ending a few years ago. It gave tight All-Star games an exciting ending but did little to solve the problems that plagued the first three quarters. At this point, the All-Star Game hardly resembles a typical basketball game, and if it continues like this it begs the question of what non-financial purpose the event serves at all. It might be time to ditch the traditional game itself and come up with something that engages fans a bit more. Sunday was to be the league’s showcase for its best and brightest. Instead, it was a lazy shootout with limited star power and viewer appeal.