From February 17th to 19th, Beijing time, the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend will be held in Indianapolis as scheduled. Fun Dreams Parker Fun Dreams Fun Basketball Sweet Candy.
As the fifth All-Star Game to be held at the home of an Eastern Conference team in nearly six years, what are the highlights of this year's Indianapolis All-Star Weekend?
Aspect 1: Curry vs. Ionescu, who is the real three-point king?
As early as late January this year, there was a report in the United States that Stephen Curry, the core of the NBA Golden State Warriors, will have a three-point battle with WNBA New York Liberty guard Ionescu during this year's All-Star Weekend.
At last year's WNBA All-Star Three-Point Contest, Ionescu scored 37 points out of 40 on 25-of-27 shooting, and was crowned the WNBA three-point champion in a record-breaking manner, averaging 7 shots per game during the WNB regular season last season9 three-pointers, with a three-point shooting percentage of 448%。
As one of the greatest outside shooters in NBA history, Curry has hit more than 3,600 three-pointers in the NBA regular season so far in his career, in addition, the NBA three-point contest all-time record is also held by Curry and Haliburton for 31 points, during the NBA regular season this season, Curry averaged 11 shots per gameNine three-pointers shot 421%。
For Curry and Ionescu, the two three-point kings, this battle will undoubtedly be a head-to-head matchup between Mars and Earth, and for fans, it will be an unprecedented three-point feast.
Aspect 2: The All-Star Game returns to the East-West confrontation, and the familiar feeling is back!
Since the 2018 All-Star in Los Angeles, the All-Star Game has been contested in the form of the captain's draft for 6 consecutive seasons, during which the LeBron team has won the championship for 5 consecutive years.
On January 19 this year, the NBA officially announced that it will return to the East and West confrontation system in the 2024 All-Star Game, which also brings this eternal classic back to the public eye.
Aspect 3: Impacting the defending slam dunk king, can McClung save the dunk contest again?
In the 2016 All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, Aaron Gordon and LaVine's fairy fight brought the dunk contest to unprecedented heights, even in 1988 when Jordan was revenge and in 2000 when Carter was a god, there was no situation where two players competed on the same court to be inseparable.
It was the pinnacle duel between Aaron Gordon and LaVine that brought the slam dunk contest to unprecedented heights, and the slam dunk contest in the following seasons was extremely mediocre, not only the fame of the players on the court became more and more mediocre, but the creativity and difficulty of the dunk action also showed a visible decline to the naked eye.
That didn't change until last year's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, when the 24-year-old McClung won the dunk contest with four dunks and three perfect scores, and the near-perfect performance was not so much that McClung made McClung famous overnight, but that McClung saved the dunk contest.
In this year's All-Star Slam Dunk Contest, McClung will be challenged by Toppin Jr., Jaylen Brown and Harks, and for McClung who aims to hit the defending slam dunk champion, the outside world is undoubtedly full of expectations for his dunk action this year.
Aspect 4: Who can win this season's All-Star MVP?
As the finale of the annual NBA All-Star Weekend, there are some players who want to challenge for the All-Star MVP award at the All-Star Game every year.
At the 2022 Cleveland All-Star Game, Stephen Curry played 37 minutes, shot 17 of 30, including 16 of 27 three-pointers, and scored 50 points and 5 rebounds.
In the All-Star Game last season, Tatum played 36 minutes, shot 22 of 31, including 10 of 18 three-pointers, 1 of 2 free throws, and scored 55 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
After Curry and Tatum won the All-Star MVP with amazing shooting performances in the previous two seasons, there is a lot of speculation about which player will be able to go all-out for that honor this season.
In the eyes of many fans, Haliburton, as the host player of this year's All-Star, will be a strong contender for the All-Star MVP, as a player who can often give exquisite assists, Haliburton, who was selected into the All-Star starting lineup for the first time in his career, will obviously get more playing time in front of Indianapolis fans, and is also expected to hand over a big double-double report card.
Also expected to hit the MVP in this year's All-Star Game is the 39-year-old LeBron James, so far in his career, LeBron James has been crowned All-Star MVP three times, so if he can win this honor again in this year's All-Star Game, LeBron James will tie Bob Pettit and Kobe Bryant and become the player with the most All-Star MVPs in NBA history.