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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Antetokounmpo passes Durant for East NBA All-Star voting lead

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PARIS—Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has passed Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant for the All-Star Game voting lead among Eastern Conference players, now putting him on track to be a captain for the February 19 game in Salt Lake City.

Antetokounmpo had 5,970,196 votes entering Thursday, the National Basketball Association (NBA) said in the third update of the All-Star balloting. Durant is 132,014 votes behind, with 5,838,182.

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers remains the overall voting leader, with 6,506,682 votes. James has been a captain in all five of the NBA’s previous uses of the format where the leading vote-getters from the Eastern and Western conferences get to pick their rosters from the other selections.

James’ teams are 5-0 in All-Star games when he is a captain.

Durant—who was the voting leader from the East at each of the first two balloting updates this year, but has been sidelined of late with a sprained knee ligament—has been the captain as the East’s voting leader in each of the past two years. Antetokounmpo was in the previous two years, 2019 and 2020.

The top three frontcourt players and top two guards in each conference will be chosen as starters, with the leading overall vote-getters from each conference serving as captains and choosing their teams.

James tops the list of West frontcourt players. Denver’s Nikola Jokic remained in second (4,718,218) and the Lakers’ Anthony Davis remained third (3,838,171).

Antetokounmpo leapfrogged Durant among East frontcourt balloting, and Boston’s Jayson Tatum stretched his lead over Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid for the third spot in the voting among those players. Tatum had 4,521,414 votes, while Embiid had 4,318,035. The margin a week ago had Tatum leading Embiid by just over 32,000 votes in the race for the No. 3 spot.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry still leads all guards in the balloting, now with 5,151,822 votes. Dallas’ Luka Doncic remained No. 2 behind Curry among West guards with 4,905,655 votes.

The top two vote-getters among East guards was also unchanged. Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving still leads with 3,968,041 votes, and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell is second with 3,851,233 votes.

Fan voting counts for 50 percent of the starters balloting, a media ballot counts for 25 percent and the ballots turned in by NBA players count for the other 25 percent.

Voting by fans continues through Saturday. The captains and the starters will be announced January 26. Reserves—chosen by NBA coaches—will be revealed February 2. The All-Star captains will then draft their teams, probably in the second week of February.

Meanwhile, more than halfway through the regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks haven’t had much of a chance to show how well they can play at full strength.

The Bucks’ three biggest stars—Antetokounmpo, three-time All-Star Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday—have played together in just five of Milwaukee’s 45 games.

That situation has led to some adversity. Since starting the season with nine straight wins, the Bucks have gone 20-16.

“There’s been nights where we haven’t played as good as we need to,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Some nights, it’s both ends. Other nights it’s one or the other. So we’re very much a work in progress. But I think we continue to be confident with the group and excited about where we’re going.”

The Bucks hope to have a couple of key pieces back soon.

Budenholzer said Antetokounmpo “did pretty much everything” at the Bucks’ Thursday practice as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Cleveland. Antetokounmpo has missed the Bucks’ last four games with left knee soreness.

Middleton had a scheduled day off Thursday but has been working out with the Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ NBA G League affiliate.

The Bucks’ biggest obstacle thus far has been the health of Middleton, who has appeared in just seven games.

After undergoing surgery on his left wrist last summer, Middleton missed the Bucks’ first 20 games before making his season debut Dec. 2. He last played Dec. 15 and has been dealing with a sore right knee ever since.

They haven’t been as consistent as usual without him.

The Bucks rank 18th in 3-point percentage (.355) after finishing fifth in that category each of the last two seasons (.389 in 2020-21 and .366 in 2021-22 ). They’re committing 15.2 turnovers per game to put them on pace for their highest average since 2015-16, when they also had 15.2 per game.

Yet they’re still second in the Eastern Conference, four games behind the Boston Celtics but only 1½ games ahead of fifth-place Cleveland. Considering how little the Bucks have been able to play together, the key will be establishing cohesiveness once everyone is healthy.

“It’s about the work that’s going to go into, as guys come back, making sure we all find a rhythm and chemistry and things together hopefully before the All-Star break but obviously definitely making that push after the All-Star break,” guard Pat Connaughton said, “to make sure everyone’s in rhythm, everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and we’re playing our best basketball come the brighter and sunnier days here in Milwaukee.”

The Bucks have stayed near the top of the East thanks to some exceptional individual performances.

Late last month, Antetokounmpo began a four-game stretch in which he averaged 43.3 points, 18.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists. That included a 123-113 victory over Washington in which he scored a career-high 55 points.

Antetokounmpo is averaging a career-high 31 points, though he also has a career-high 4 turnovers per game and has his lowest overall shooting percentage (.524) since 2016-17.

Brook Lopez, who played just 13 regular-season games last year due to a back injury that required surgery, has missed only one game all season. He has career highs in 3-point percentage (.401) and blocks per game (2.5).

Bobby Portis is averaging a double-double with 14.2 points and a career-high 10 rebounds per game.

But it’s been Holiday who really has come on lately.

Holiday helped the Bucks win two straight games without Antetokounmpo or Middleton this week by scoring 35 points against Indiana and 37 against Toronto on back-to-back days. Teammates are calling for Holiday to make the All-Star Game, something that hasn’t happened since 2013 when he was with Philadelphia.

After the Raptors game, Holiday was asked what makes an All-Star.

“I don’t know, if you want me to be completely honest,” Holiday said. “You score a lot. You make the game fun. Highlights. A lot of dunks. I don’t do any of that, so I don’t know how I’m going to be an All-Star. I’ve been scoring a lot, but I don’t dunk. I don’t run really fast. I don’t scream and shout. I feel like it’s entertainment as well as winning.

“That’s one thing I think our team has done pretty well is winning, and guys stepping up on our team when our big dogs are down, being able to play well.”

Image credits: AP

Read full article on BusinessMirror

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