NBA News: Friday, February 3, 2023

The NBA action continues to heat up in both conferences as teams are starting to make a big push to the playoffs. Time is quickly running out for some teams, and the trade deadline is approaching quickly as well. 

There haven’t been a ton of big trades made yet, and most of the biggest NBA news stories this week involve the upcoming All-Star Game. Here is a look at some of the news stories that are dominating the headlines on the first Friday in February.

NBA Announces All-Star Reserves

Last week the NBA announced the two captains and the starters for the NBA All-Star Game, and this week the final list was revealed. There were seven players chosen as reserves in each conference, and the coaches throughout the league decided what players should be given that honor.

There are always going to be deserving players that don’t get selected, but the coaches tend to do a great job of picking players that are having a great season. Popularity doesn’t matter when selecting the reserves, as the fans don’t have any part of this process. 

The Western Conference reserves are: Ja Morant, Domantas Sabonis, Damian Lillard, Paul George, Lauri Markkanen, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jaren Jackson Jr. The Eastern Conference reserves include: Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, DeMar DeRozan, Julius Randle, and Tyrese Haliburton. 

There are four players making their first-ever All-Star Game appearance this season. Commissioner Adam Silver will choose replacement players if any players are injured and not available to suit up. 

Nuggets Staff Coaching Team LeBron

Earlier this week, the NBA announced that the coaching staff of the Boston Celtics would be coaching the team captained by Giannis Antetokounmpo. We now know who will be coaching Team LeBron as the league chooses the coaching staff from the team with the best record on a certain date. 

Michael Malone and the rest of the Denver Nuggets coaching staff will get the opportunity to coach LeBron James and his chosen team at the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. There is a chance that Nikola Jokic will join Team LeBron, or Malone and his staff could coach against their two-time MVP winner. 

The Memphis Grizzlies are right behind the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference standings, but a loss to Portland on Wednesday night clinched the best record for the Nuggets.

LeBron Getting Closer to Kareem

The NBA is going to have a new scoring leader soon as LeBron James continues to get closer to moving past Kareem Abdul Jabbar. After scoring 26 points on Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers, James now sits just 63 points away from the record. 

Technically the mark is now within reach, but it’s going to take a career night for James to break the record in the next game. The Lakers are on the road in New Orleans on Saturday night before returning home for two games. 

It appears as if James will have the opportunity to break the record on his home floor in what should be a terrific environment.

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All Media on this page by Associated Press.