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2022 NBA All-Star Game prediction, odds: Team LeBron vs. Team Durant picks, best bets from expert on 85-67 run

Published

1 year ago

February 20, 2022

The 2022 NBA All-Star Game takes place on Sunday night from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. Team LeBron, fronted by LeBron James, will battle Team Durant. Although Kevin Durant won’t play for his namesake team in the NBA All-Star Game 2022, Joel Embiid, Ja Morant, Jayson Tatum, Trae Young, and Andrew Wiggins, Golden State Warriors will start. For Team LeBron, James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, DeMar DeRozan, and Stephen Curry will take the floor first. Team LeBron won 170-150 a season ago.

Tipoff is at 8 p.m. ET in Cleveland. Caesars Sportsbook lists Team LeBron as a 5.5-point favorite, while the over-under, or total number of points Vegas thinks will be scored, is 321.5 in the latest 2022 NBA All-Star Game odds. Before making any 2022 NBA All-Star Game picks, be sure to check out the 2022 NBA All-Star Weekend predictions from SportsLine expert Mike Barner.

Barner is a respected NBA Fantasy expert, both season-long and DFS, whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated and on Yahoo, RotoWire and KFFL. He has also been featured on ESPN Radio. He digs deep into the data, examining team trends and projecting game outcomes. With his unmatched analysis, Barner spots opportunities in a unique way.

Barner’s expertise has been on full display lately. He is on an amazing 85-67-2 run in against-the-spread NBA picks, returning over $1,100 to $100 players. He also has an incredible feel for NBA All-Star Weekend. In 2021, Barner called the winner of the 3-point Contest, the Dunk Contest and hit both the spread and over-under in the All-Star Game itself. Anybody who followed his picks saw some huge returns.

Now, he has zeroed in on Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game 2022, analyzed the rosters and matchups, and released a confident against-the-spread pick. Head to SportsLine now to see it. Here are the Team LeBron vs. Team Durant lines:

NBA All-Star Game 2022 spread: LeBron -5.5
NBA All-Star Game 2022 over-under: 321.5 points
NBA All-Star Game 2022 money line: LeBron -220, Durant +180
Team LeBron: James is seeking a fifth consecutive All-Star victory
Team Durant: Jayson Tatum replaces the injured Durant (knee) as a starter

Featured Game | Team LeBron All Stars vs. Team Durant All Stars

2022 NBA All-Star Game format

Team LeBron and Team Durant will represent charitable organizations, with Team LeBron playing for the Kent State I Promise Scholars Program and Team Durant playing for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. The winner of each quarter will be tracked, with the winner receiving additional funds for its organization, and then a Final Target Score will be implemented to determine the overall winner.

The Final Target Score, sometimes referred to as an Elam Ending, will be 24 points higher than the leading team’s total score through three quarters. That leads to an untimed fourth quarter, and the first team to reach the Final Target Score will be victorious.

Why Team LeBron can cover

Team LeBron has been a dominant force since the NBA All-Star Game switched to its current format in 2018. The team has won four straight matchups, two of which were by at least 14 points. Team LeBron has hit 157 points in three of the four meetings and reached 170 twice. Team LeBron features a strong set of reserves that includes Luka Doncic, Darius Garland, Chris Paul, Jimmy Butler, Donovan Mitchell, Fred VanVleet, and Jarrett Allen, who joins the team in place of the injured James Harden.

Curry and Antetokounmpo combined for 63 points for Team LeBron in last year’s All-Star Game and the team shot a robust 63.6 percent from the field.

Why Team Durant can cover

The absence of Durant will get attention, and rightly so, but Team Durant is led by the betting favorite to win the 2021-22 NBA MVP award. Joel Embiid sits atop the field at Caesars Sportsbook for the league’s top individual honor, and he is averaging 29.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game this season. Embiid boasts a 61 percent true shooting mark, and he has been even better in recent days, averaging 33.4 points and 11.5 rebounds per game in the last 25 contests. Embiid is also a high-end defender, and Team Durant can play a dominant defensive center for all 48 minutes if they also want to deploy Rudy Gobert when Embiid rests.

In support, Team Durant has two dynamic lead guards in Ja Morant and Trae Young. Morant is the centerpiece of a top-three team in the Western Conference, averaging 32.3 points, 7.0 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game in the last 14 contests. Young is averaging 27.8 points and 9.3 assists per game, and he is one of the most creative and dazzling passers and long-range shooters in the sport.

How to make 2022 NBA All-Star Game picks

Barner is leaning under on the total, and he’s also found a critical X-factor that has him jumping all over one side of the spread. You can only see what it is, and which team you should back in the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at SportsLine.

Who wins the NBA All-Star Game 2022? And what crucial X-factor makes one side a must-back? Visit SportsLine right now to see which team you should be backing on Sunday, all from the SportsLine expert who crushed his All-Star picks last year, and find out.

2022 NBA All-Star Game Rosters

Team Durant:

Kevin Durant
Joel Embiid
Ja Morant
Jayson Tatum
Andrew Wiggins
Trae Young
LaMelo Ball
Devin Booker
Rudy Gobert
Zach LaVine
Khris Middleton
Dejounte Murray
Karl-Anthony Towns
Draymond Green

Team LeBron

LeBron James
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Stephen Curry
DeMar DeRozan
Nikola Jokic
Jarrett Allen
Jimmy Butler
Luka Doncic
Darius Garland
James Harden
Donovan Mitchell
Chris Paul
Fred VanVleet

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Related Topics:AllStar bets Durant Expert Game LeBron NBA odds picks prediction run team

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Report: Bucks’ Middleton underwent surgery on right knee following playoffs

Published

19 seconds ago

June 8, 2023

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Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton reportedly underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee following his team’s playoff exit, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

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The report says that Middleton is expected to make a full recovery and return to action in July. The surgery was a clean-up process in his right knee which was reportedly planned prior to the end of the season.

Middleton, 31, is set to become a free agent if he chooses to decline his $40 million player option for next season. The deadline for that decision is June 21.

He struggled through injuries this year, only appearing in 33 regular season games for the Bucks and averaged 15.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

He missed the first 20 games of the season following off-season wrist surgery then missed 18 straight games due to knee soreness in December and January.

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Chris Broussard Makes A Prediction If Damian Lillard Stays In Portland

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4 mins ago

June 8, 2023

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(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

The Portland Trail Blazers had a chance to put something special together, but they didn’t get the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.

One could argue that pairing Victor Wembanyama — even as a rookie — with Damian Lillard could’ve given them a chance to make the playoffs, but the No. 3 pick might not be as ready as Wembanyama is and is definitely not as valuable as a trade asset either.

That’s why Chris Broussard believes both the Blazers and Damian Lillard need to come to terms with the fact that they need to part ways for each other’s sake.

"If Dame stays in Portland the rest of his career he is not going to win a championship. … Dame's loyalty and the Blazers loyalty is admirable, but it flawed thinking on both sides." — @Chris_Broussard pic.twitter.com/lWKani1wKW
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) June 7, 2023

Broussard compared Lillard to Kevin Garnett, who also refused to leave the Minnesota Timberwolves and then admitted that his only career regret was not joining the Boston Celtics sooner.

Like Garnett, Lillard could play in the NBA Finals and even win a championship before retiring or entering the backend of his prime, which would obviously skyrocket his already impressive legacy.

Broussard also claimed that — as good as Lillard is — a 6-foot-2 guard won’t be able to lead a team to the NBA championship, as history has proved it — obviously with the exceptions of Stephen Curry and Isiah Thomas.

There’s no denying that Lillard is one of the most unstoppable scorers in the game right now, and he’s a bonafide leader and arguably the greatest Blazer of all time.

Loyalty is valued, especially nowadays.

But they’re both holding each other back, and it’s time they just let go of each other.

The post Chris Broussard Makes A Prediction If Damian Lillard Stays In Portland appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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No homecoming for Messi as Barcelona fails to do enough to lure him back

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10 mins ago

June 8, 2023

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Nearly two years after Barcelona was forced to let Messi go against his will because of its financial struggles, the club once again missed out on a chance to bring him back.

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