NBA All-Star Game Preview: Jrue Holiday, Dalliant and Dainty

With the exception of Russell Westbrook's leg kick celebrations on missed halfcourt heaves during the Shooting Stars Competition, last night's All-Star festivities were fairly pedestrian. The announcing was, per usual, an incessant shot to the 'nads. The dunks were bleh. I even found the 3-Point Contest to be really boring. But I'd be lying if I told you I didn't take the Skills Competition, and particularly the Jrue Holiday attempts, to another level of All-Star seriousness.

Unfortunately, by rule he was forced to Sixers it, allowing Damian Lillard (who rocks) to take home the tacos. Jrue grew up in LA -- he don't need those tacos. But while I was groveling on the floor cursing the 20-footer Lillard just sunk, I remembered that this isn't the end of All-Star weekend for Jrue. Which I think is the first time a Sixer has participated in both an ASG event and the All-Star Game since Julius Erving in 1984 and 1985, unless I'm forgetting some event Iverson was in.

Right, the All-Star Game. Jrue. All that. With the Rajon Rondo injury there was some hope that Erik Spoelstra would start Jrue, though the more likely choice was Kyrie Irving. Spo decided to do neither and will instead be starting Chris Bosh at point guard -- an interesting decision. So Jrue will come off the bench and hopefully do awesome fun things with Kyrie and Paul George resulting in a Pantydropper for all involved.

The rosters probably favor The West a bit, but with LeBron James shooting 1000% these days and being the best player and all, they're pretty even. I don't expect Jrue will get more than 15 minutes though he is one of only two point guards on the East roster. He'll probably play no defense, so don't be disappointed when he lets Tony Parker dance around him Frenchly.

BUT SERIOUSLY HOW AWESOME WOULD IT BE IF JRUE JUST D'ED UP LIKE A MADMAN OUT THERE? I'd love it. He'd probably get blacklisted for it, but if he's playing insane chest to chest defense for 94 feet, Bud Selig would come down from the rafters and decree this game to "count", resulting in a Commissioner fight between he and David Stern, refereed by Gary Bettman. Roger Goodell is too busy moneyslapping expensive hookers to show.

Right, the All-Star Game. Who isn't excited to see James Harden play with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook again? The East is lacking in flashy bench players outside of Paul George (!), but if I were a betting man, I'd put lots of cash on Joakim Noah to do something silly.

The West has a few of their own meat/taters guys in Zach Randolph, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tanner Steidel clone David Lee. Hopefully we get a grueling game of post-ups for like two minutes and the announcers have nothing to talk about. I think I'm gonna watch on mute. I will be dogsitting during this game so my company will be a very excitable dog named Piper at a very nice house equipped with a stocked liquor cabinet in Beverly Hills. Perchance I'll go for a swim.

Right, the All-Star Game. Does me continuing to forget to actually "Preview" the ASG mean something? At least it's better than the Pro Bowl. Hopefully it's fun. Hopefully Jrue does something Jruish.

He's 25/1 odds on winning MVP, but 2/5 on doing something adorable. I'm excited to see the guy play with some good players. Maybe he'll convince them to come to Philly? Ha.

Thread will be up later but leave your predictions on how many minutes Jrue will play and if he'll throw an alley-oop or receive one first.