The NBA announces a renewed All-Star tournament for San Francisco

LAS VEGAS – The NBA’s All-Star Game will become an All-Star tournament this season, with the league announcing Tuesday that it has finalized plans to use a different format for the upcoming midseason showcase in San Francisco.

And the score will definitely be down – way, way, way down.

This season’s format is a four-team, three-game, one-night tournament, with three teams each featuring eight All-Stars, with the fourth team being the winner of the Rising Stars challenge for first- and second-year players. The winning team in all matches will be the first to score 40 points.

It will happen on February 16 at home to the Golden State Warriors. The Rising Stars event is there on February 14, headlined by All-Star Friday.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has wanted a more competitive All-Star event for some time, and this change comes after the teams combined for a record 397 points — 211-186 was the final — in last season’s game in Indianapolis.

The teams combined for 289 shots in that game, 94% of which were either inside the paint or beyond the 3-point line.

“Obviously, when the elephant in the room is us competing, it’s expected and reasonable that they try to shake things up,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a likely All-Star selection this season for the third time. “At the end of the day it’s going to come down to whether the players want to go for it and I’d love to see that. Love to be a part of that for sure and hopefully it happens.”

There have been other shake-ups in the All-Star format in recent years. After the first 66 All-Star Games, which were played in the traditional format – Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference, with four quarters of 12 minutes each—the league switched to a new format in which the leading vote-getters from each conference served as captains and drafted their teams.

LeBron James served as one of the captains all six times, with Giannis Antetokounmpo the other captain three times, Kevin Durant twice and Stephen Curry once.

For four years of the captain’s choice, the All-Star Games used a goal score at the end of games, ensuring that the winner was decided on a made shot. The fourth quarter was untimed, and the winner was the first team to reach the leading team score after three quarters, plus 24 points – a tribute to Kobe Bryant’s final jersey number.

It went back to East vs. West format last season and saw a record high in points with Luka Doncic attempting a 70-foot jumper, Donovan Mitchell throwing a 50-foot underhand pass, Bam Adebayo inbounding the ball to himself by throwing it. off Nikola Jokic’s backhand, Tyrese Haliburton attempting five 3-pointers in 92 seconds, and Damian Lillard ending the night with a 44-foot jumper — which wasn’t even his longest shot of the game.

“I think something could be done about it,” Lillard said after his MVP-winning performance in last season’s game. “I’m not sure what, but I think there’s a way to make it a more competitive game.”

The league hopes it has found the answer.

Voting format

All-Star voting begins Thursday, and the format is unchanged.

Fans can vote daily through Jan. 20 for three frontcourt and two backcourt players from both conferences.

It will be part of a weighted formula — 50% fan vote, 25% media panel vote, 25% current player vote — to determine the 10 players who will be designated as “starters.”

NBA head coaches will select the 14 players designated as “reserves”.

But the starting and reserve columns won’t matter much on game night, because there will be 15 different players starting — five from each of the three teams — and only nine players coming off the bench in these semifinal games.

How the teams are selected

TNT analysts and former NBA players Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will draft teams from the 24-player All-Star pool on February 6. The teams will carry their names – Team Shaq, Team Charles and Team Kenny.

The winner of the Rising Stars going to the All-Star tournament will be called Team Candace, for retired WNBA star Candace Parker, also a TNT analyst.

Coaching staff

The coaching staffs from the teams with the best records in the Eastern and Western Conferences will go to the All-Star Game. (It can’t be the Milwaukee or Minnesota coaching staffs because they coached last season.)

The East and West head coaches each coach their own teams in the tournament. An assistant coach from each staff will serve as head coach for each of the other two teams.

Prize money

There is a $1.8 million prize pool for the All-Star Game.

Each player on the All-Star championship team will receive $125,000, second-place players will receive $50,000, and players on the teams eliminated in the semifinals will receive $25,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.