The Cleveland Cavaliers will have two representatives at All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles with Donovan Mitchell and Jaylon Tyson. Mitchell will be participating in the 3-Point Contest and All-Star Game, while Tyson will be in the Rising Stars game.
The format of these events changes seemingly every season. Let’s get into what we can expect this go around.
Rising Stars
When: Friday, Feb. 13 at 9 PM
TV: Peacock
The Rising Stars game will feature first and second-year NBA players and a handful of G League participants. The 21 NBA players have been broken up into three teams. The G League players are on a team of their own.
The four teams will participate in a mini-tournament of three overall games. There will be two semi-final games. The first team to 40 points in the semi-final games will advance, and the loser will be eliminated. The two winning teams will face off in the finals. The final game will be won by the first team to reach 25 points.
Tyson is on a team drafted by Tracy McGrady. His team is as follows:
- Tre Johnson
- Kon Knueppel
- Ajay Johnson
- Alex Sarr
- Cam Spencer
- Jaylon Tyson
- Kel’el Ware
3-Point Contest
When: Saturday, Feb. 14 at 5 PM
TV: NBC and Peacock
The 3-Point Contest will be the first event of All-Star Saturday. This is a change from their normal order of activities. Considering this is the best event of All-Star Weekend, and it features Mitchell, it’s worth watching.
This will be the second time Mitchell has been in the 3-Point Contest as a Cavalier and the third time overall. In his most recent showing, he wore a number 5 Cavs’ jersey with “Money Merrill” on the back in honor of Sam Merrill. He said on Wednesday that he plans on doing that again this time around.
Here are the participants for the 3-Point Contest:
- Devin Booker
- Kon Knueppel
- Damian Lillard
- Tyrese Maxey
- Donovan Mitchell
- Jamal Murray
- Bobby Portis Jr.
- Norman Powell
NBA G League Next Up Game
When: Sunday, Feb. 15 at 2:30 PM
TV: NBA TV
The Charge will have two representatives at this year’s version of what is the G League All-Star Game with Killian Hayes and Norchad Omier
Hayes has had an incredible season so far. He’s averaging 23.5 points, 8.3 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game on .467/.323/.795 shooting splits in 26 outings with the Charge.
Omier is a candidate to get the two-way spot that Nae’Qwan Tomlin recently vacated by signing a standard deal. Omier is averaging 18.5 points and 11.1 rebounds on .601/.270/.790 shooting splits.
The Next Up Game is consistently a pretty solid event. There’s generally a real competitive level to this game that isn’t there in most of the other All-Star Weekend activities. Like the other events, this will also follow the same mini-tournament format.
NBA All-Star Game
When: Sunday, Feb. 15 at 9 PM
TV: NBC and Peacock
The All-Star game is once again trying a new format. This year, the All-Stars were broken up into three teams. Two teams are made of U.S. players, while the third is the international team.
The three teams will play in a round-robin tournament, with each team playing each other. The mini games will be just 12 minutes long.
The teams with the top two records after the three games will face off in the final game.
Mitchell’s team will consist of the veteran U.S. players, as seen below.
- Jaylen Brown
- Jalen Brunson
- Stephen Curry (not participating due to injury)
- Kevin Durant
- Brandon Ingram
- LeBron James
- Kawhi Leonard
- Donovan Mitchell
- Norman Powell
We’ll see if the new format changes make the game more competitive.
Let us know in the comments what event you’re most excited to see and whether you think the new format will change anything.