Why Did the Nba Change All Star Game Format Again in 2019
CHICAGO — Leading 154-153, Team LeBron was a 3-pointer away from ending the 69th almanac All-Star Game in Chicago on Lord's day night, and Houston Rockets star James Harden, with the ball in his hands, turned the stomachs and curdled the blood of every fan in the packed United Center with every successive dribble he took upwardly the courtroom and closer to the iii-point stripe. Harden, one of the league'south virtually prolific pull-up shooters, nailed a 3 in Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry's confront, and for a moment, the game looked like it was over.
The changes the NBA implemented to the All-Star Game format came into play. The winner of every quarter raised $100,000 for the clemency of its choice — the final totals being $100,000 for Team Giannis and $400,000 for Squad LeBron, which was awarded an actress $100,000 for winning the game — and the score reset at the cease of every quarter. At the start of the quaternary quarter, the scores were all added upwardly, and, in a tribute to Kobe Bryant, the get-go team to score 24 points on top of the leading score won the game. That figure ended up being 157 points.
As straining every bit it is to explain now, in the moment, the stakes were piece of cake to understand. And despite being heavily criticized beforehand (past myself included), the gambit worked. The terminate of the game was nerve-racking, condign an endorsement for experimentation itself. Until the ball is rolled out on the flooring, y'all never really know what'due south going to happen. And there'south no better venue to simulate new ideas than Sunday'southward game. Not just are the stakes depression, but anybody is watching. Fans can provide instant feedback on what does and doesn't work.
They did. Prior to Harden'due south iii dropping through the internet, the whistle sounded. Kyle Lowry, the league'due south leader in charges drawn per game, dropped to the floor. The packed arena stood in unison, waiting for the results of the play review. When it was revealed that Lowry indeed successfully eliminated Harden'due south dagger, the crowd roared. There are few real allegiances in the All-Star Game at present that the conferences no longer face off against each other. I tin can only presume the fans were rooting for the same result as me — despite a long-continuing curmudgeonly distaste for overtime — and everyone else on press row: more activeness.
"I didn't know what to expect," Giannis Antetokounmpo said. "Equally we played, it was great. That's what everybody wants to run into. They want to see a competitive game. That'south what it was in the fourth. Hopefully, we can go along it going."
Information technology was 9:58 p.k. CT in Chicago when Harden nailed two free throws put his team three points away from victory. The next half 60 minutes produced weak knees, shortened breath and tense muscles. Despite the meaninglessness of the game itself, the experience was boundless. You didn't want it to end.
The NBA changed the rules to engineer a care cistron, but in the final moments of the game, players e'er care. It wasn't able to become them to ratchet up the intensity in the get-go three quarters, just what the format inadvertently stumbled into was a playground-style, next-indicate-wins standoff that got fans to care more.
For half an hr, the terminate of every offensive possession for Team LeBron could terminate the game. When Joel Embiid hit two complimentary throws for Team Giannis to brand the score 156-155, every possession became defend-or-die. The issue, instead of existence beholden to the clock, was solely determined by the activeness on the floor. The feel maximized anxiety, the ultimate goal of the cease of a close game.
The end couldn't take been more than anti-climatic, given the format. Team LeBron needed one point to win when Anthony Davis was fouled. He missed his first shot but nailed the second one, and at 10:30 p.k., it was finally over. But consider how well-nigh games terminate: with the clock dwindling down. The fact that the game ended — no, had to stop — on an action is a huge improvement on that.
"The end was amazing," said Toronto Raptors bus Nick Nurse, who coached Team Giannis. "I call up everybody in the whole place was on their anxiety watching each possession, and they were really going at it. Offensively, it was difficult to go annihilation started. Even first passes were being denied. It felt similar the end of a playoff game, which was really cool, I idea."
The result was far also irresistible to be express to one meaningless game. On that note, here's a modest proposal for next season: modify the format of the regular season and playoff overtime games to something like to the fourth quarter nosotros merely witnessed. The NBA can experiment with the perfect score. Maybe it's 24. Maybe it's 15. Imagine the defensive intensity that would be produced in a game with real stakes.
The NBA is constantly tinkering. They intuitively understand a truth that's hard for most people to believe: Rules are made to be broken. Nosotros tend to believe certain things should exist ready in stone, until something changes and the next thing feels just as cocky-axiomatic. "The good thing about our league is nosotros're ever adding things and trying new things and trying to figure out from my fans what they like," said Oklahoma City Thunder baby-sit Chris Paul after the game.
If The Basketball game Tournament, as LeBron James pointed out after the game, can play to a prepare score, why shouldn't the NBA try it out? Rules can and should change all the time. On Sunday nighttime, we discovered a kernel that could be the birth of the NBA's next great idea.
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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/after-some-trepidation-the-nb-as-new-all-star-game-format-is-a-huge-success-080030722.html
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