The world’s greatest basketball players will converge on the Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans on Sunday for the All-Star Game. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant… The list of genuine superstars goes on and on and it promises to be a fantastic duel. Here we take a look at the teams, the odds being offered and who might win it:
Western Conference
For the third season in a row the Golden State Warriors have been the dominant team in the NBA regular season and their two brightest stars, Curry and Durant, will start for the Western Conference. They will be joined by James Harden of the Houston Rockets, who is 10/11 favourite with Paddy Power to be named regular season MVP after breaking a string of records this year and emerging as the best in the business, ahead of Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook (who has gone out to 13/8 with William Hill despite leading the betting for the first half of the season). Westbrook will be kept in reserve in favour of Curry. The Western Conference team will be completed by Kahwi Leonard, of the San Antonio Spurs, and New Orlean’s Pelicans star Anthony Davis. The Spurs have the league’s second best record, after Golden State, and Leonard has been a driving force, while Davis has been extremely consistent. The Western Conference team have a wealth of talent in reserve, including Westbrook, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Eastern Conference
The Western Conference may have the best all-around team, but the Eastern Conference can call on the outrageous talents of James, and that may be the deciding factor. He has not quite hit the heights of previous seasons this time around – leaving him trailing Harden and Westbrook in the running for MVP and now all the way out at 11/1 with Bet Victor and Paddy Power – but the Cleveland Cavaliers are comfortably ahead in the Eastern Conference and he may well be saving himself for the playoffs. And this game. He is ably supported by Cavs teammate Irving, DeMar DeRozan of the impressive Toronto Raptors, Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, with Isaiah Thomas and Kyle Lowry among the talented reserves.
Odds and projections
The bookmakers have made the Western Conference team the clear favourites in the big game, with 4/9 a typical price on offer, but Paddy Power will go to 20/39. The Eastern Conference team are the outsiders at 7/4 with Sky Bet. This is understandable: last season the Western Conference crushed the Eastern Conference, with Westbrook running riot and ending up as MVP. That he can’t even get in the starting team this year shows just how strong this Western Conference team is. In the regular season two Western Conference teams – the Warriors and the Spurs – have a far better record than any teams in the Eastern Conference. They have the best players from both, plus Harden and off the bench Westbrook, and are looking very formidable indeed. James can be a game changer but his presence was not enough to prevent the Eastern Conference from slumping to a 196-173 defeat last year.
It is hard to look past the Western Conference winning this and those odds from Paddy Power look pretty generous, so that is a great option right now. It might pay to get on it before the odds drop in the build-up to the big game. Vegas has set the spread at Western Conference -5 and Paddy Power is offering 10/11 on Western -5 and on Eastern +5. The Western Conference has a great team and they should cover that spread, so that looks a decent option if you want more value. The other big market is predicting the MVP. Paddy Power has made Westbrook 3/1 favourite, which is interesting as he won’t be starting. A better option looks to be Harden, who is 6/1 fourth favourite after Westbrook, James and Davis. He has been having a sensational season and should shine for the team that is expected to win.
