NBA All-Star Saturday Best Bets

NBA All-Star Weekend kicks off Friday with both the Celebrity and Rising Stars games. But the most popular night of events during the three-day celebration of the NBA’s best is Saturday night, where fans will be treated to a trio of classic All-Star competitions. The Skills Challenge will take place first, and even though the competition is in its relative infancy, it has already become a staple of All-Star Saturday. The Skills Challenge will serve as our appetizer to the two main courses, the 3-Point Contest and the Slam Dunk Contest.

With the All-Star game itself taking place Sunday with a new draft format (the teams will be drafted “at the park” style on the court just before the game), there’s unlikely to be any DFS action to be had. So, we pulled the NBA team here at FTN together to make our picks for the Saturday night action.

(All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook.)

Skills Challenge

Here are the current Skills Challenge odds.

Team Jazz (-120)
Team Rookies (+140)
Team Antetokounmpo (+475)

Our Picks

Some of the FTN team gave their picks for the event, with some giving further thoughts. 

• Adam Strangis – Team Jazz 
  Gotta roll with the home team. They’re one of the two teams here that has players that get a lot of minutes.
• Adam Pfeifer – Team Rookies
• Alex Blickle – Team Rookies
  Only team in the competition with three skilled players.
• Kyle Murray – Team Rookies
• Mike Randle – Team Rookies
  Going with the rookies, especially with the versatility of Banchero, explosiveness of Jaden Ivey, and length of Jabari Smith. This time has better balance than the Utah Jazz trio, and a distinct talent advantage of the Antetokoumpo brothers.
• Zac Graham – Team Antetokounmpo
  They’re big underdogs here for a reason. I agree with both Alex and Mike’s assessment of the three teams, but we aren’t playing basketball Saturday. Team Antetokounmpo was in this last year and won the passing competition before getting knocked out on a tiebreaker in the relay. I’m counting on their previous glimpses of success combined with the experience of playing these skill challenges under pressure before to start my Saturday night off right at +475.
• David Jones – Team Jazz

3-Point Contest

Here are the current 3-Point Contest odds.

Damian Lillard (+425)
Buddy Hield (+425)
Jayson Tatum (+500)
Kevin Huerter (+550)
Tyler Herro (+550)
Tyrese Haliburton (+600)
Julius Randle (+650)
Lauri Markkanen (+700)

Our Picks

• Adam Strangis – Damian Lillard
  It’s Dame Time. He’s been on fire coming into the break, just scoring at will. Huerter is my sleeper that could wind up going deep in the contest.
• Adam Pfeifer – Tyler Herro
• Alex Blickle – Damian Lillard
  Might be the second-best shooter ever. Should only be longer odds to Steph.
• Kyle Murray – Lauri Markkanen
• Mike Randle – Kevin Huerter
  The 24-year-old Huerter has the perfect combination of everything we want in a 3P pick. He is in his fifth NBA season, with a consistent per-season 3P average with a variation of less than three percent. Huerter has reached career-highs in 3P accuracy (39.2%) and 3PAs (6.8). He has seven games of five or more threes, and the type of effortless release that plays well in this high-volume contest. With odds of +650, I feel confident Huerter would win this competition at least once every six times.
• Stefano Vaccarino – Kevin Huerter
• Zac Graham – Lauri Markkanen
  He’s got the second best three-point percentage in the field, just behind Buddy Hield, on just over seven attempts per game. Add in the home court advantage and the long odds and it makes for a juicy All-Star Saturday night play.
• David Jones – Damian Lillard

Slam Dunk Contest

Here are the current Dunk Contest odds.

Kenyon Martin (+220)
Mac McClung (+240)
Jericho Sims (+275)
Trey Murphy (+300)

Our Picks

• Adam Strangis – Mac McClung
  He might have the most sizzle coming in despite being a non-NBA player and this is a huge audience for him to show out for.
• Adam Pfeifer – Mac McClung
• Alex Blickle – Mac McClung
  If he couldn’t dunk, you wouldn’t know who he is.
• Kyle Murray – Kenyon Martin
• Mike Randle – Mac McClung
  Only four competitors this year, which gives the diminutive McClung an even bigger advantage. McClung will be the crowd favorite as a majority G-League player and has flashed 360 in-game dunks this season. Shorter players have a distinct advantage in these contests, and the list of competitors is hardly intimidating. His odds are the cherry on top of this betting sundae.
• Stefano Vaccarino – Mac McClung
• Zac Graham – Jericho Sims
• I get the feeling we aren’t going to be overly impressed with the other three dunkers, and that may come true for the ex-Longhorn as well. But Sims possesses the size and leaping ability to put on a mini version of Dwight Howard’s contest winning performances of old. If he can throw down his dunks on the first try and have some good help on any lobs he must certainly be planning, I think his combo of size and athleticism can get him the dunk title against this field.
• David Jones – Mac McClung