The 2017 NBA All-Star Game is slated to take place on Sunday, Feb. 19, at 8 p.m. in New Orleans. This marks the third time the Big Easy has hosted the best and brightest professional basketball stars. This year’s rosters show plenty of big names, and the 66th installment of the annual exhibition is definitely not short on premium players.
To get a feel for what might happen, we decided to run a best-of-seven series game simulation to see how the teams will do, which conference would come out on top, and how individual players will fare on the court. If you’re into spoilers, continue reading to see how this year’s All-Star Game just might play out.
Building an All-Star Roster
As with every All-Star matchup, the best players from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference will face off. This year, the Eastern starters include Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jimmy Butler. Representing the West, we have Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis.
The reserves for each conference are also not lacking for star power, as the East features players such as John Wall, Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry, Kemba Walker, Paul George, Kevin Love (being replaced by Carmelo Anthony due to injury), and Paul Millsap. The West’s bench will hold standouts like Russell Westbrook, Klay Thompson, Gordon Hayward, DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, and Draymond Green.
It’s no surprise to see many selections from the two most recent conference winners – with three players from the Cavs, and the Warriors sending four. These aren’t the only teams and players making waves this season, though: Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo, a 6-foot-11 shooting guard, is excelling in his play for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Russell Westbrook is on his way to averaging a triple-double for the Thunder down in OKC.
A Simulated Series Sweep
We built each All-Star team and had them play against one another on a neutral court in a simulated series. We distributed players so they would all play an equal amount of time (as close to equal as we could get) and crunched the data to see who came out on top.
The winner? The Western Conference. They not only won the seven-game series but also swept it – winning the first four games and rendering the rest of the series unnecessary. The averages of points scored across the four games were 107.5 for the West and 95.5 for the East.
While this may or may not be a spoiler, it looks like the Western Conference All-Stars may win the game on Sunday.
Standouts on the Court
There were more than a few standout players from our sim. James Harden was the player of the game for Game 1, followed by DeMarcus Cousins for Game 2, Stephen Curry for Game 3, and Russell Westbrook for Game 4. DeMarcus Cousins, incidentally, was the highest-scoring overall player in the series, landing a 13.8-point average per game (on the Eastern Conference side, Paul George was tops in this department with 11.9 points per game).
Not to be outdone, LeBron grabbed an average of 8.0 rebounds per game, and Russell Westbrook notched an impressive 4.3 assists per game. On the rebounds front, Anthony Davis topped out at 7.5 per game for the Western Conference, and for assists, John Wall checked in as the best in the Eastern Conference with 4.0 per game.
Game On
While we’ll have to watch this year’s All-Star Game play out to see if these predictions come true, we’re likely in for a feisty one, as scores are typically pretty high, and there is much fanfare from the intros to the halftime show and throughout the game itself.
If you’re going to check out this year’s All-Star Game, rest assured that Fanatics has pretty sweet All-Star Game gear, where you can grab your favorite player’s jersey with this year’s unique colors.
