The NBA All-Star Weekend will be coming up this week and the formats have changed. Let’s take a look at the new rules and wide array of stars that will be participating in this year’s exciting State Farm All Star Saturday Night before making our NBA predictions

NBA Predictions - State Farm NBA All-Start Weekend

Great Commentatin

The TNT commentators are what make this  event reall special. We love to tune in to their witty banter and excellent play-by-play as the events unfold, the Taco Bell Skill Challenge, Foot Locker 3- Point Contest, Sprite Slam Dunk and The Sears Shooting Stars at the Smoothie King Center at 8pm on February 15th.

Participating in three events, is Damian Lillar of the Portland Trail Blazers. This is something that no other star has ever done and it really shows why the Trail Blazers are as good as they are this year. It also says bunches for the progression of the league.

Sears Shooting Stars 2014

There will be two teams, one from each conferece and they will be shooting it out in two timed rounds. Each team hasa legands player, an NBA player and a WNBA Player.

We give the edge to the  Western Conference because of the father and son duo, Stephen and Dell Curry. They will be teaming up with WNBA markswoman Becky Hammon. The West's ohter team is lead by none other than Kevin Durant. Enough said.

Taco Bell Skills Challenge 2014

The skills contest consists of obstacle course ball handling, dunking, passing , layups etc. in a timed manner ... where one mistake can cost the teams a lot. The NBA will be changing the event to a beat the clock format.

Damian Lillard is the defending champ, but we will see a lot of other young players in this event as well. Reggie jackson, Michael Carter-Williams, DeMar DeRozen etc. All are upp  and coming young studs eager to strip lillard of the title.

Damian Lillard is the skills category favorite with +300 (3/1) betting odds for our NBA picks. 

2014 Foot Locker 3-Point Contest

This contest is also a slightly different this year. We now have 5 shooting spots and a ball rack that has a 'All Money Balls". The rack will be placed strategically set by  the shooters. The teams are set up as Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving, Joe Johnson and Arron Afflalo for the East and Damian Lillard, Stephen Curry, Kevin Love and Marco Belinelli for the West.

Stephen Curry is the odds on favorite to win this event.

Sprite Slam Dunk Contest

We all know that guys like Lebron James don't participate because they are pansies whbo are affraid to get injured. But it is still an awesome event that closes out the All-Star Weekend show. The contestants get 90 seconds to do their best dunk before mocing on to the head-to-head round.

The big favorite at +200 (2/1) to win the dunk contest isTerrence Ross for our All-Star sports picks.

$500,000 is on the table in charitable contributions. So who will win!? Stay tuned this  Thursday  for our predictions!

Later this week we will release NBA predictions on the All-Star game.