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Jason Jones here, filling in for Zach today. 👋
A significant holiday is coming up. But this Valentine’s Day weekend really isn’t about love. It’s about the basketball spectacle that is NBA All-Star Weekend. Those of us who have attended multiple might tell you by the time the actual All-Star Game is played, you’re usually too tired to care after a Friday and Saturday filled with work and fun.
That might help explain why the game has been so hard to watch, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care who is actually playing that Sunday.
All-Star Voting: Fans getting it right so far
There’s no overreaction quite like the one to All-Star Game fan voting.
The NBA released the second round of results yesterday. Surely some pundits will opine that it is a tragedy Darius Garland has fewer fan votes than Jordan Poole for Eastern Conference guard while a social media commentator salutes fans for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading among Western Conference guards, but laments that his Oklahoma City teammate, Jalen Williams, is only seventh among frontcourt players.
But it’s really nothing to get worked up about.
Fan votes are 50 percent of the calculation toward who will play in the All-Star Game in San Francisco. Votes by players account for 25 percent, with the final piece of the pie coming from the media. (The next fan voting update comes on Jan. 16, and the polls close Jan. 20.)
Lately, the most enjoyable part of the ASG has been this selection process. Whether it be fan votes or when player captains picked their own teams on television, all of the buildup has become more interesting than the actual contest. The league is trying to spark interest this year with yet another new format for the game, but as long as the players look like they’re going through a glorified walkthrough, no amount of change is going to bring more viewers.
The biggest takeaway from fan voting? Despite all the bickering between talking heads, the fans seem to know who the game’s youngest stars are.
But the best part of the fan results is LaMelo Ball ranking second among guards. I know the Charlotte Hornets are not a good team. But thanks to LiAngelo Ball’s hit song “Tweaker,” the Ball family is popping again, and LaMelo’s popularity is a reminder the game is supposed to be about fun and the fans.
And if we get “Tweaker” performed live with LaMelo as the hype man, that will be far more interesting than anything else the NBA could conjure up to bring interest to the game.
The Last 24: L.A. wildfires affecting NBA
🗓️ NBA postpones Hornets-Lakers. The league will reschedule the game, which had been set to be played in downtown Los Angeles, because of the L.A. wildfires. No word yet on Hornets-Clippers on Saturday or the Lakers-Spurs matchup that same day.
Additionally, Warriors coach Steve Kerr discussed losing his childhood home due to the fires, and ESPN reported Lakers coach JJ Redick lost his current home. Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was away from the team Wednesday to be with family who had to evacuate.
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Bucks at Magic, 7 p.m. ET on League Pass. Banchero reportedly might play for the first time since Oct. 30. The Magic are fourth in the East — one game ahead of this opponent.
📺 Or this one! Thunder at Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV or Fubo (try for free). The best team in the West looks to bounce back on the road against another East contender after having its 15-game winning streak ended by Cleveland.
Vibe Check: Pistons ‘still hungry’ amid turnaround
The surging … Detroit Pistons?
Since the heyday of the Chauncey Billups-led Pistons, there hasn’t been a whole lot to care about with Detroit. Many were scratching their heads just a few months ago when the team fired coach Monty Williams after one season as the highest-paid coach in NBA history at the time.
It’s looking like the Pistons were right to change directions at head coach.
Detroit has won 10 of 14 for new coach J.B. Bickerstaff — five of six this January! — and guard Cade Cunningham is putting up All-Star-caliber statistics.
The team that lost 28 consecutive games under Williams last season was 19-18 this season before last night’s narrow loss to Golden State. It was the first time the Pistons had been above .500 in January since 2018, as Hunter Patterson wrote. Their 19 wins are five more than all of last season. 🤯
The recent success has been aided by good offense. In the 13 games prior to last night, they averaged 115.5 points while shooting 47.7 percent and 37.1 percent from the 3-point line. Detroit is also benefiting from the physicality and defense of Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Ausar Thompson.
It was easy to dismiss the Pistons as a pushover as losses piled up last season. This season’s group has shown it won’t be pushed around and likes to get physical on the court. These aren’t the Bad Boys. Far from it. But after recent seasons of losses and bad misses in the draft, Detroit simply not just being bad is a positive step.
“It feels good,” Cunningham said in Hunter’s story. “We’re still hungry though, man. We’re not satisfied. It is a satisfying feeling, but we’re not satisfied at all.”
The New Kings: Are Christie’s Kings actually fixed?
Tonight, the Sacramento Kings, with newly minted interim coach Doug Christie, head into Boston to face the 27-10 Celtics. This is significant because the Kings have seemingly turned things around since he took over once they controversially fired coach Mike Brown two days after Christmas.
- You may remember Brown was the 2023 Coach of the Year, the coach who broke the longest playoff drought in league history and the guy the Kings gave a contract extension to this past summer. So why fire him?
- The relationship between Brown and the higher-ups had soured, and it’s possible the Kings are feeling pressure to retain De’Aaron Fox, who just wants to win somewhere. The Kings lost five straight at home in December to drop to 13-18, and Brown was gone. Coaches, media and fans crushed the decision, calling the Kings the same old team who’d went through 11 coaches in the 16 years between playoff appearances.
But under Christie, the Kings are 5-1 and riding a five-game win streak. Has Christie changed things? Are they good again? Here are the biggest shifts we’ve seen in these six games:
- 📈 The offense: The Kings have jumped up four points per 100 possessions (eighth to fifth).
- Why? Kings have increased points off turnovers, transition points, 3-point volume and 3-point accuracy. They’re also grabbing a higher volume of offensive rebounding chances.
- 📈 The defense: Allowing a lower volume of 3s, forcing more turnovers and rebounding better.
- 📉 Opponent quality: They lost to the Lakers (without LeBron James), then beat Dallas (without Kyrie Irving), Philly (without Joel Embiid), Memphis (without Ja Morant) and Miami (without Jimmy Butler). To be fair, Sacramento was without Fox against Golden State and Miami.
The Kings do seem like they’re playing a lot harder, and we’re seeing improvements on both sides of the ball. They can’t help that their opponents weren’t at full strength, just like teams didn’t apologize when they beat the Kings during their injuries. Christie appears to at least have them more focused. We’ll see if that holds against Boston tonight (7:30 p.m. ET, League Pass).
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(Top photo: Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images)
