Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan will be on the same team for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game. Both will suit up for Team Curry.
The game’s new format saw 12 players selected as All-Stars from each conference the same way they usually are. From there, though, the top vote-getter in each conference – LeBron James and Steph Curry – selected teams, first from the pool of the eight other starters and then from the 14 reserves. Criminally, the draft wasn’t televised, nor was the order of selection revealed (though it may leak later). The draft went down via conference call at 3 p.m., with James getting first pick and Curry getting first choice of jerseys.
The All-Star jerseys. pic.twitter.com/lOE9gvIAMR
— 𝐑𝐞𝐲-𝐑𝐞𝐲 (@TheNoLookPass) January 26, 2018
James and Curry selected teams as follows:
Lowry and DeRozan shared the court as Eastern Conference All-Stars in each of the last two seasons. Each is making their fourth career All-Star appearance, which puts them both one behind Vince Carter and Chris Bosh for the most in Raptors history. They’re also the only Raptors duo to appear in more than one All-Star Game together (Carter and Antonio Davis did it in 2001). And now, of course, they’re the first Raptors ever drafted to the same team.
Not that they’d have it any other way, even if at least one writer thinks them going head-to-head would have been much more entertaining.
“I’ve got to play with my guy. So whoever it is, I’ve got to play with DeMar. We’ve got to be on the same team,” Lowry said at practice Thursday. “We might have to make a trade or something. I don’t know.”
As a reminder, a win on Friday would lock Dwane Casey and his staff in as the coaches for one side of the All-Star Game, which would mark the first time a Raptors coach has ever earned that honor. Brad Stevens is ineligible since coaches can’t coach the team in back-to-back years, and the Raptors are one win from clinching the East’s best record through Feb. 4, excluding Boston. Casey is slated to coach Team LeBron, so there will at least be a little Raptor battling.
The Raptors, by the way, weren’t particularly happy about none of their young players getting the Rising Stars nod, though Fred VanVleet mostly took it in stride.
Casey on all 4 of his guys getting left out of rookie-sophomore game: "I’m shocked. I’m totally shocked and upset about that. It blows my mind that our young guys weren’t selected."
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) January 25, 2018
What was OG's reaction to the rookie-sophomore snub? "I thought I was going to be in it, but I'm not, so whatever."
Was it disappointing? "(I was) disappointed but…"
Will he use it as extra motivation? "Yeah, motivation, for sure. Prove those coaches wrong."
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) January 25, 2018
