2025 NBA All-Star Game Best Bets: Team Shaq Has Winning Chemistry

Forget Team Candace

At BetOnline, Team Candace is priced at +600 to be the winning team.

We can rule out betting on Team Candace immediately. The talent level is simply insufficient. Its top scorer is Keyonte George with 16.4 points per game. To put this figure in perspective, every player on Team Chuck averages at least 2.4 more points per game.

Team Kenny Can’t Defend Team Chuck

Kenny chose players who he thought would try hard.

If the games were longer like they used to be in previous years, then Kenny would be very smart. But effort won’t be such an issue in this shorter format where a team only needs 40 points to advance. Kenny’s roster selection was likewise not smart for personnel- and matchup-related reasons.

The key matchup issue here is that Team Kenny is loaded with guards, creating a significant size issue against Team Chuck. Team Chuck, who is Team Kenny’s first-round opponent, went for size. Team Chuck’s size advantage must make it hard for Team Kenny’s guard-laden to defend well.

In particular, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama will be difficult for Team Kenny’s defense to contain. They are centers. Jokic, for example, is known for bullying his defender in the post. Team Kenny’s roster does not have a single center with which to defend Team Chuck’s centers. Plus, centers like Jokic can still do what guards do. Jokic is well-known for his ability to distribute.

Of course, Team Chuck also has the best guard on the court in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is the NBA’s leading scorer and is co-favorite (with Steph Curry) to win All-Star MVP.While Giannis is hurt, this is actually a good thing for Team Chuck.

Giannis is at his best in a well-spaced offense where he can easily find driving lanes. But spacing will be an issue in such a center-laden squad, so he wouldn’t have played that well. Trae Young, Giannis’ replacement, gives Team Chuck another elite guard, a needed top-notch distributor — he leads the NBA with 11.5 assists per game.

Team Chuck’s Defensive Advantage

Gilgeous-Alexander is a solid perimeter defender with All-Defensive Team votes to his name. Wembanyama was runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year last year.

However, Team Chuck’s advantage on defense might be best expressed simply in its size and length, with which it can congest the interior for Team Kenny’s many players who prefer to drive inside and attempt their shots inside the arc, such as Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson.

Team Chuck also has, in Gilgeous-Alexander, the top perimeter defender with which to contain Team Kenny’s top shooting option.

Team Shaq Will Win

Team Shaq’s players are older, yes, but age does not matter in the shortened All-Star Game format. Nobody is going to run out of breath tonight.
There can’t be any doubt that guys like LeBron and Steph can still play at an extremely high level. They just, along with Kevin Durant, won Gold in the Olympics. Jayson Tatum was on the team with them as well.

Plus, LeBron and Kyrie Irving have a special chemistry together going back to their days in Cleveland, where they won an NBA Championship together. Tatum and Jaylen Brown have also been teammates, in Boston, for a long time now. They just won an NBA Championship together.

Success enhances chemistry, and these players have had the biggest successes together. So, even if Team Chuck were slightly more talented, Team Shaq clearly has superior chemistry.

Obviously, NBA games are not just one-on-one battles where individual talent prevails. NBA games are played by teams, and teams require chemistry on both offense and defense to succeed. Even if Team Kenny were to defeat Team Chuck, the point about chemistry remains.

All-Star Dream Team

Again, Team Kenny’s younger players will not want to win more than Team Shaq does, especially in this shortened format. Team Shaq has a well-constructed team with sharpshooters like Curry, distributors like Harden and inside scoring talent that can take over a game like LeBron and Tatum.

LeBron and Durant spearhead the defense with their versatility in being able to guard multiple positions. In an All-Star Game, offensive chemistry will matter the most, though. That’s what Team Shaq has more than the other teams.

NBA All-Star Pick: Team Shaq ML (+135) at BetOnline

Team Shaq ML (+135)

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