The 2024 State Farm NBA All-Star Weekend is set to kick off with this year’s festivities taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Pacers.
The Los Angeles Lakers will be represented in the game itself as LeBron James was once again the leading vote-getter in the Western Conference, his 20th consecutive starter selection. With the game returning to the East vs. West format this year, LeBron will be joined on the West team by Anthony Davis, who is returning to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2021.
But before the game itself takes place the always popular State Farm All-Star Saturday Night takes place and there will be four exciting events going down inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
NBA All-Star Kia Skills Challenge
Kicking things off for NBA All-Star Saturday night will be the Kia Skills Challenge, which will maintain last year’s overhauled format of three teams with three players each competing in three different competitions. The first round will be a team relay, second is team passing and the final competition is team shooting. Whichever team has the most points after three rounds will win.
The three teams this year will be Team Pacers, Team Top Picks and Team All-Stars.
Representing the hometown Team Pacers will be All-Star starter Tyrese Haliburton, second-year guard Benedict Mathurin and big man Myles Turner. Team Top Picks also has a pair of All-Stars in Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Paolo Banchero of the Orlando Magic, along with a likely future All-Star in 2023 No. 1 pick Victor Wembenyama of the San Antonio Spurs. Finally, Team All-Stars will be represented by Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers, Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks.
Starry 3-Point Contest
The Starry 3-Point Contest will see Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard look to defend his crown against a stacked field. Eight players will compete with the top-three scores from the first round advancing to the Finals and the highest score there will be crowned champion.
A couple of Skills Challenge contestants will be pulling double duty as both Haliburton and Young are in the 3-point Contest field, as is 2022 champion Karl-Anthony Towns.
Rounding out the group is Malik Beasley of the Bucks, Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz and Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks.
Steph vs. Sabrina 3-Point Challenge
This year’s All-Star festivities will also feature a special 3-point challenge between two of the best shooters the world has ever seen in Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty.
Curry, of course, is the NBA’s all-time leading 3-point shooter and a two-time 3-point Contest champion while Ionescu set the WNBA record for 3-pointers in a season and last year set the record for most points by anyone in a 3-point contest with 37 (out of a possible 40) in the final round of the WNBA’s contest in which she made 25-of-27 shots total.
Curry’s Eat.Learn.Play nonprofit and Ionescu’s SI20 foundation will both receive a donation from the NBA and WNBA as part of this competition.
AT&T Slam Dunk
All-Star Saturday Night will conclude with the AT&T Slam Dunk with reigning champion Mac McClung of the G League’s Osceola Magic looking to defend his crown. McClung put on an absolute show last year and will hope to top that in 2024.
Looking to take him down will be Boston Celtics All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, impressive Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., and the extremely athletic Jacob Toppin, younger brother of 2022 dunk champion Obi Toppin.
Each player will get two dunk chances in the first round with five judges scoring appropriately. The two top combined scorers will move on to the finals where they will have two more dunk chances and the highest scorer will be crowned champion.
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