2024 NBA All-Star game: Tyrese Maxey, Charles Barkley and another format change

The NBA’s All-Star weekend concludes tonight with the 73rd annual All-Star Game, with tip-off scheduled for just after 8 p.m. in Indianapolis on TNT and TBS.

Playing in his first All-Star game is Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, who hit a half-court shot during the skills competition Saturday night but came up short leading Team All-Stars to a victory.

Sixers star Joel Embiid was also voted an All-Star for the seventh straight season, but won’t take the court tonight as he recovers from a knee injury that’s expected to keep him sidelined until at least March, when his knee will be reevaluated. Replacing Embiid in the starting lineup tonight will be Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo.

Coaching Maxey and the other Eastern Conference All-Stars will be Doc Rivers, the former Sixers coach who left his NBA Finals announcing job for ESPN last month to coach the Milwaukee Bucks.

Rivers has gone just 3-7 with the Bucks this year, so why is he coaching this year’s Eastern Conference All-Stars? The Boston Celtics had the best record in the Eastern Conference through Feb. 4, but head coach Joe Mazzulla was ineligible to be picked because he served as the East’s coach last season. The Bucks had the second-best record in the East, so that’s why Rivers got the nod.

“That is ridiculously bad. It really is,” Rivers said of being named this year’s All-Star coach. “It’s one of these quirky things. I think there should be a rule somehow that someone else does it other than me.”

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Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream this year’s NBA All-Star game:

The 2024 NBA All-Star Game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and will air live on TNT and TBS from the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, home of the Indiana Pacers.

The All-Star Game will stream live on Max via the via the B/R Sports add-on, which runs $9.99 a month but is currently offering a free promo trial. The game can also be streamed on TNT’s website, though it’s only available there for cable subscribers.

The game can also be streamed on a host of services, including Hulu With Live TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV, Fubo, or YouTube TV. It will also stream live on NBA League Pass, though the subscription service is hardly worth it for Sixers fans in the Philadelphia market due to its blackout rules.

The game can also be streamed on a host of services, including Hulu With Live TV, DirecTV Stream, Sling TV, Fubo, or YouTube TV.

Calling the All-Star Game for TNT and TBS is play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson. Joining him on the broadcast will be Hall of Famer Reggie Miller (who will be calling his 17th All-Star Game) and Candace Parker. Allie LaForce will offer reports from the court.

For the second straight year, Hall of Famer and former Sixers great Charles Barkley will headline an alternative broadcast of tonight’s All-Star game on truTV in the style of ESPN’s popular Manningcast.

Joining Barkley will be Taylor Rooks and Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green, who has played the past month after serving multiple suspensions for hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the head and putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold.

Barkley will also be part of the broadcast’s two-hour pregame show at 6 p.m., alongside his longtime Inside the NBA colleagues Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith.

» READ MORE: Shaquille O’Neal believes the Sixers are ‘done’ following Joel Embiid’s knee injury

After three years of experimentation, tonight’s All-Star game is ditching the so-called “Elam Ending” and returning to a traditional scoring system with four 12-minute quarters.

For the past four years, in an attempt to spark interest in the game, the All-Star game featured an untimed fourth quarter where both teams raced to be the first to finish a “final target score.”

In 2020, the new rules led to what might have been the most thrilling fourth quarter in NBA All-Star game history, but the games have lacked drama and effort the past three seasons. Ratings also dropped last year to 4.59 million viewers, easily the least-watched NBA All-Star game in history, according to Sports Media Watch.

“No one was happy about the experience last year, no one at all,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a November interview on JJ Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast after the changes were announced last fall, according to ESPN. “It’s not me necessarily saying we expect you to be playing like it’s the Finals but we need a game.”

Instead of team drafts and other gimmicks, the rosters have also returned to the classic East vs. West matchup.

» READ MORE: NBA commissioner Adam Silver isn’t willing to give up on the new 65-game rule