2017 NBA All Star Saturday Preview

All Star Saturday begins at 2:30 Eastern Time on NBATv with the D-League All Star game. The Clippers don’t have any participants (on affiliates) this year, but it is still a basketball game of sorts to watch.

The fun really starts at 8:00 Eastern on TNT with the Taco Bells Skills Challenge, which features 8 players (four big men and four guards) competing against each other in a short series of drills to determine who the fastest is. The participants this year are:

Devin Booker

DeMarcus Cousins

Anthony Davis

Nikola Jokic

Gordon Hayward

Kristaps Porzingis

Isaiah Thomas

John Wall

Following the Skills Challenge is the JBL Three Point Contest (should be taking place around 8:45 I would guess), also with eight participants. Each will shoot 25 three pointers from around the arc, and the top three scores go to the final round. The winner is determined the same way for the ultimate champion. The players taking part in the contest are:

Eric Gordon

Kyrie Irving

Kyle Lowry

Wes Matthews

CJ McCollum

Klay Thompson

Kemba Walker

Nick Young

The final event of the evening is the one Clippers’ fans should be excited for, as it is the first event of the weekend featuring a Clippers’ player. This is the dunk contest, which is usually the biggest draw of the evening. It will also be on TNT, and might start around 9:45 or so. The other players who are going to lose to DeAndre Jordan are:

Aaron Gordon

Glenn Robinson III

Derrick Jones

Each contestant gets two dunks in the first round, and the two highest scorers (each dunk is given a score of 0-50) will advance to the finals. The finalists will get another two dunks, and then the winner is crowned. While Aaron Gordon was spectacular in last year’s Dunk Contest, we all know how explosive DJ is as a dunker. The favorite might actually be the unheralded Jones from the Suns, who has barely even played in the NBA, but can truly perform some incredible feats while airborne. Should be a fun night!