NBA All Star Odds, Betting and Picks

NBA All Star 2023 takes a step closer with the announcement of the Eastern and Western Reserve lists...and there are some big big names on those lists!

Whilst there are still no actual odds published (the sportsbooks tend to publish only a few days in advance), we know that there will be the usual vast array of betting markets available for the NBA All Star game. Including:

All Star Head to Head odds - the game result, including any overtime, Eastern or Western Conference to win.

Latest NBA Head to Head Odds

Team LeBron Odds	Team Giannis Odds
1.65	2.35

All Star Line odds - the game result including a handicap applied. The favoured team in the Head to Head will have a negative handicap (meaning they have to win by more points than the handicap), the unfavoured team will have a positive Handicap...help in other words!

Latest NBA Line Odds

Team LeBron Line	Team Giannis Line
(-3.5) 1.90	(+3.50) 1.90

All Star Total Points - Over / Under - the sportsbooks set an expected total number of points the game (including overtime) will produce. A bettor can bet on Over or Under.

Latest NBA Game Total Odds

Over (323.50) Odds	Under (323.50) Odds
1.90	1.90

Both the Line and Over/Under markets enable sportsbooks to set the odds at a similar value for each outcome, regardless of how skewed the odds are in the Head to Head market. Usually either outcome in an NBA Line (Handicap) bet or NBA Total Points (Over/Under) bet will be between 1.88 and 1.95.

You'll also be able to bet on the NBA All Star MVP and a whole host of other fun markets including Slam Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest and the Team Skills Contest

Recommendation: 3pts Team LeBron (-3.5) at odds of 1.90

So what were the 2022 NBA All Star betting results?

Team LeBron (West) 163, Team Durant (East) 160

Betting Results:
Head to Head: Team LeBron, odds 1.40
Line: Team Durant (-5.5), odds 1.90
Total Points: Under (325.5), odds 1.93 - yes THREE TWO FIVE

NBA All Star games have been high scoring affairs for a long time, a partial result of players playing out of position (to accommodate multiple superstars who play in the same spot), partially due to the exhibition nature of the event, and partly due to the introduction in 2020 of the use of the Elam Ending rule.

You've also got the factor that these games are hardly played out at full-contact, they aren't quite exhibition games in the mould of the Harlem Globetrotters, but they ain't full bloodied encounters either.

Teams loaded with points scorers, not sticking the elbow in equals high scoring...sometimes very very high scoring.

Last 10 NBA All Star Game Results

As explained, these games tend to generate bucket loads of points...check out the last 10 All Star game results:

2022: Team LeBron 163, Team Durant 160, (Cleveland)
2021: Team LeBron 170, Team Durant 150, (Atlanta)
2020: Team LeBron 157, Team Giannis 155, (Chicago)
2019: Team LeBron 178, Team Giannis 164, (Charlotte)
2018: Team LeBron 148, Team Stephen 145, (LA)
2017: West 192, East 182, (New Orleans)
2016: West 196, East 173, (Toronto)
2015: West 163, East 158, (New York)
2014: West 155, East 163, (New Orleans)
2013: West 143, East 138, (Houston)

As you can see, not only are the game totals insanely high, the Western Conference is on quite some run of results. An eight game straight win streak going into the 2023 NBA All Star Game, where they will be led by LeBron James for the sixth successive year, is a big reason to favour the Western Conference and Team LeBron again.

In fact since the 1999 lockout (no All Star game) there have been 23 NBA All Star Games, and the Western Conference / Team LeBron (same thing) has won 17 of them.

We're still favouring the Western Conference (Team LeBron). We were last week when the NBA All Star Captains and Starters were announced, and now the reserves are added, seeing the likes of Ja Morant, JJJ, Markkanen and Paul George amongst the reserves give us emboldened confidence.

A full NBA All Star odds review will be available here once the sportsbooks start publishing their markets. Team LeBron 1.50 / Team Giannis 2.60 is our guess....

Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Portland's Damian Lillard had to have known they were going to the All-Star Game. Players averaging more than 30 points per game typically don't have to worry about not hearing their name called.

Other players — like Miami's Bam Adebayo, Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton and Utah's Lauri Markkanen — had reason for concern.

NBA coaches made them very happy. And probably made a few other guys very unhappy.

The reserves for the Feb. 19 All-Star Game in Salt Lake City were announced Thursday night. From the Eastern Conference, it was Embiid, Adebayo, Haliburton, Boston's Jaylen Brown, Chicago's DeMar DeRozan, Milwaukee's Jrue Holiday and New York's Julius Randle.

Even for a now six-time All-Star like DeRozan, it still matters.

“It’s everything," DeRozan said. “I just hope anybody out there, whatever field you work in, never listens to the outside noise, to people doubting you, counting you out, everything. As long as you’re true to yourself, believe in yourself, you keep putting in the work with a genuine heart and genuine passion, you’ll be rewarded.”

We recommend Australian sportsbook PlayUp for all your NBA Betting. They have great offers and promotions, keen NBA odds, and a huge array of other sports to have a bet on. Read our full review of PlayUp.

18+ | You know the score | Stay in control | Gamble responsibly

From the Western Conference, the picks were Gilgeous-Alexander, Lillard, Memphis teammates Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., Markkanen, Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis and the Los Angeles Clippers' Paul George.

“Every single year, starter or not, I’m competitive," Embiid said. “Obviously you want to be the best. I felt like I put myself in position to be up there and the best."

He was an easy pick. Other candidates probably were tougher for coaches to pass on — that list including Phoenix's Devin Booker, the Los Angeles Lakers' Anthony Davis, Atlanta's Trae Young, all of them averaging around 27 points per game this season. Philadelphia's James Harden, averaging 11 assists per game, also was left out; unless he's picked as an injury replacement, his streak of 10 consecutive All-Star appearances is over.

Same goes for Denver's Aaron Gordon. The West-leading Nuggets were hoping, and weren't happy when the results were announced.

“Aaron Gordon deserves to be an All-Star," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “When you have the best record in the Western Conference, and you’ve had it for a while now, and you’ve been able to sustain that high level, and you look at the year that Aaron Gordon is having, to me it’s just a travesty that the coaches didn’t vote him in."

The reserves are selected by the 30 NBA head coaches, who each cast ballots for seven players from their own conference.

“It means a lot," Morant said on the TNT broadcast of the announcements. “Obviously, it shows my work that I've put in day in and day out. ... Hopefully, Jaren gets picked on the same team as me."

The 14 players who were announced Thursday join this pool of starters: team captains LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson.

Durant and Williamson are currently out with injuries. If either of them, or any other All-Star selection, cannot play for whatever reason then the task of replacing them falls on Commissioner Adam Silver.

James and Antetokounmpo will draft their teams live, shortly before the All-Star Game in a new twist this season; past All-Star drafts in the now-6-year-old captain's format had been done ahead of time. Boston interim coach Joe Mazzulla will coach Antetokounmpo's team; the Nuggets' Malone is an All-Star coach now for the second time and will coach the team that James selects.

James — closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA career scoring record — is 5-0 as a captain, having served as one in every season of this format. He got two of those wins over teams that Antetokounmpo selected. Abdul-Jabbar is expected at All-Star weekend, and Silver said in Paris last month that the weekend could provide the league with the opportunity to properly salute James taking over as the scoring leader, assuming it happens by then as expected.

The Rising Stars event is Feb. 17, the first night of the three-night All-Star weekend. All-Star Saturday — featuring the 3-point contest, dunk contest and skills competition — takes center stage the next night, followed by the 72nd All-Star Game on Sunday.

NBA All Star: Squads in full

Team Giannis: Eastern Conference

Starters
c-Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee
Jayson Tatum, Boston
Kevin Durant, Brooklyn
Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn
Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland

Reserves
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia
DeMar DeRozan, Chicago
Jaylen Brown, Boston
Bam Adebayo, Miami
Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee
Julius Randle, New York
Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana

Team LeBron: Western Conference

Starters
c-LeBron James, LA Lakers
Stephen Curry, Golden State
Luka Doncic, Dallas
Nikola Jokic, Denver
Zion Williamson, New Orleans

Reserves
Ja Morant, Memphis
Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City
Paul George, LA Clippers
Damian Lillard, Portland
Lauri Markkanen, Utah
Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis