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NBA All-Star 2018 Friday Night: HQ Open Thread

Let’s hangout, watch a few events, and try not to think about how cool it would have been for even one Raptor to be involved in the Rising Stars Game.

By Daniel Reynolds
NBA: Los Angeles Clippers at Philadelphia 76ers Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

As we covered this morning, there are a couple of events happening today at the official kick-off to NBA All-Star Weekend 2018. Sure, these events don’t quite involve the league’s biggest of big stars (or even the world’s biggest non-basketball stars), but they’re not nothing either.

First, if you’re a fan of celebrities — including Canadian Andre De Grasse, Turtle, Nick Cannon, Dascha Polanco, and everyone’s favourite baller Win Butler — playing basketball, the Celebrity Game is for you.

If nothing else, we should use this as an open opportunity to boo Paul Pierce.

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Then, we get to the big show of the night: the Rising Stars Game. It’s in a World vs. USA format, which always for all kinds of fun lineup combinations. Want to see Joel Embiid try to block Donovan Mitchell at the rim? Or maybe watch De’Aaron Fox feed John Collins in the post? (Hey, it could happen.) It’s all happening in the Rising Stars Game.

(Or, you can watch the game while silently wondering how they picked these squads and managed to leave off all of the qualified Raptors’ bench — including two World hopefuls, Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam, plus USA should-have-been standout Fred VanVleet. Yes the trio is not made up of huge names, but come on: John Collins? Frank Ntilikina?? Malcolm Brogdon???)

(Shouts to Canadian Dillon Brooks though — good luck and godspeed young man!)

Where to Watch:

NBA All-Star Celebrity Game - 7pm on ESPN

Rising Stars Game - 9pm on TNT

For the full line-up details for the Rising Stars Game check here.

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