A weekend of stars – and Damian Lillard: Predicting the 2014 All Star Weekend

So, of course, the beautiful backdrop of New Orleans will shine as the host city of the 2014 NBA All Star Weekend, and of course, the game’s biggest stars like Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and co. will make headlines, and of course, there will be all types of celebrities and basketball bigwigs in the NBA’s annual mid-season exhibition, but the story of the weekend could be a relatively unlikely name: Damian Lillard.

Lillard – or ‘Lillmatic’ as I like to call him – is set to make history by competing in five events in the course of three days of the All Star Weekend, basically everything unless you count the Celebrity Game or Shooting Stars as events (and I don’t). In what is turning out to be a helluva year for the young Trailblazers point guard, Lillard who won the Rookie of the Year award at the end of last season has led Portland to become surprise contenders this season, and was deservingly named an All Star in just his second season.

And in New Orleans next week, the rise to fame will continue. Lillard will be the star player for ‘Team Hill’ in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, will compete in the Skills Challenge (which he won last year), Three-Point Contest, and Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday, and of course, in the main event itself: Sunday’s NBA All Star Game.

So by default, Lillard might become the most mentioned name by virtue of having his name listed literally, everywhere, but will he be the most successful. With revamped energy (word to the new Commissioner) in all the All Star programmes – particularly for the Slam Dunk Contest – it’s promising to be a big year for the event all around. Here is my preview and some bold predictions looking forward to the NBA All Star Weekend.

Damian Lillard

Rising Stars Challenge

What used to be the Rookie vs. Sophomores game was changed to the ‘Rising Stars’ Challenge a few years ago, to mix up the rookies and sophomores and make the game more balanced. It needs to be too, because the crop of sophomores is far more dominant than this year’s rookies. The teams were drafted by NBA legends Chris Webber and Grant Hill.

Team Webber: Anthony Davis, Michael Carter-Williams, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke, Jared Sullinger, Anthony Mason, Victor Oladipo, Steve Adams, Kelly Olynyk.

Team Hill: Damian Lillard, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond, Harrison Barnes, Terrence Jones, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jonas Valanciunas, Dion Waiters, Pero Antic (injured), Miles Plumlee (replacement).

Andre Drummond

Team Webber has the best player on the court in home-team star Anthony Davis, along with four top rookie guards in MCW, Hardaway Jr., Burke, and Oladipo. Meanwhile, Team Hill only has one true point guard – Lillard – who is doing 9,876 other things and might pace himself a little. But, I still think that they have more depth and talent than Webber’s team, simply because there are more sophomores than rookies. Davis and bunch of rookie guards can’t win this alone. Between Beal, Drummond, Barnes, Valanciunas, Waiters, and Plumlee, Hill’s team have a lot of great balance and options. Plus, there’s the Greek Freak who will do everything. I’m predicting Team Hill to win and Andre Drummond to notch up a 20-20 game en route to the MVP award.

Skills Challenge

All the Saturday events will be held between ‘East’ and ‘West’ teams, and instead of rewarding individual winners, the best team will take the trophy. Three players from each conference will take part.

West: Damian Lillard, Trey Burke, Reggie Jackson.

East: Victor Oladipo, DeMar DeRozan, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Giannis Antetokoumpo

This is usually a crew of the league’s best point guards, but Lillard is the only All Star PG out there this year. DeRozan is an All Star, too, but not a point guard, which will ultimately hurt him and his team in the competition. No matter how he performs, Antetokounmpo could be the coolest thing in the Skills Challenge in a long time. Anyway, West will win this because they actually have great ball-handlers and Damian Lillard will have the highest score.

3-Point Contest

The NBA has picked a good mix of the league’s best shooters and some star-power in the three-point shootout, although the big surprise is that the owner of the NBA’s longest-ever three-point per game streak – Kyle Korver – wasn’t invited. There will be four players per team. One exciting change this year: there will be an entire rack of only ‘money balls’ (two points each)!

West: Marco Belinelli, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Kevin Love.

East: Arron Afflalo, Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving, Joe Johnson.

Marco Belinelli

This might actually be the closest contest of the day. Any of the underrated shooters like Belinelli or Afflalo could get hot for their side, or stars like Lillard, Love, or Irving could find their stroke, but when there’s no other way to settle things, bet your money on Stephen Curry. Curry will lead the West to a close win.

Slam Dunk Contest

The Slam Dunk Contest is back! For the first time in almost a decade, I am genuinely excited again. This is the first time in 26 years that there will be three All Stars participating in the Dunk Contest: Paul George, John Wall, and Damian Lillard. Fans like to see great dunks, but what we like even more is to see great players throwing down good dunks. Props to George – who has already competed and lost in this contest once – return despite becoming an MVP candidate this season. The dunk contest had become too much about random rookies or pure dunkers with little star-power to interest casual fans. With changed rules that hopefully eliminate time wasted on missed dunks or stupid props, this could be one of the most exciting dunk contests in a long time. For the first time in the event’s history, no individual dunker will be crowned. Instead, the title will go to the best conference.

West: Harrison Barnes, Damian Lillard, Ben McLemore.

East: Paul George, Terrence Ross, John Wall.

We’ll get a couple of good dunks out of Barnes in the West, but I won’t be counting too much on Lillard or McLemore to do anything jaw-dropping. On the East however, Ross returns to defend his title and Paul George can do this. While there won’t be an individual ‘winner’, I’m gonna say that John Wall will have the best dunk(s) of the night and East will win.

All Star Game

And here we are for the Weekend’s true raison d’être , the 63rd NBA All Star Game on Sunday night. We could go through all the problems and complaints with the voting system that unfairly rewards some underserving players over others, etcetra etcetra etcetra. But the system is the system, and the rosters are set. At the end of the day, the game’s biggest stars will be on the court in the same game at the same time, and that alone is awesome.

West: Starters – Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant (injured), Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love. Bench – LaMarcus Aldridge, James Harden, Dwight Howard, Damian Lillard, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Anthony Davis (injury replacement).

East: Starters – Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade. Bench – Chris Bosh, DeMar DeRozan, Roy Hibbert, Joe Johnson, Paul Millsap, Joakim Noah, John Wall.

Steph Curry

Yes, the new frontcourt-backcourt rule means that the East will start with three small forwards and no one bigger. Meanwhile, their backcourt will have two of the most inconsistent (although explosively talented) guards in the league. I’m more interested in the clutch-time lineup than the starters, and I think Coach Vogel will run with Irving, Wade, LeBron, George, and either Bosh or Hibbert in the clutch. The fourth-quarter lineup for the West could possibly be Curry, Lillard (because Paul is hurt and Parker doesn’t care about these games), Durant, Griffin and Aldridge. The East – top to bottom – fare better defensively, but these games are primarily offensive affairs and I predict the West will take care of matters with hot shooting in the first three quarters. Between Curry, Lillard, Durant, Harden, Nowitzki, and co., this team will shoot the lights out and win the game by a blowout. And my surprise MVP pick goes to… Stephen Curry. Curry can be the hottest shooter in the league if he’s given the green light, and there is no green light like an All Star Game against lackadaisical defensive efforts. He could lead the team in both points and assists and steal the show.