The games in the all-star were not that competitive so they are likely to come back refreshed.

The Knicks are on a four-game losing streak so they are also struggling as of late.
The Sixers won 2 out of 3 games so I can understand why fugue said they are doing well recently.

I think this is going to be a hard-fought battle for both teams. I cannot pick one to be honest and I'm probably going for under 220 points.

Nobody takes the all star game seriously anymore. I don’t blame the players for not giving it a good effort either. Nobody wants to get hurt during the game. It’s like playing basketball on vacation for them. I think they should focus more on 1v1 or skills challenges with winners of events getting a million dollars. That would have them competing and would limit injuries.

I just saw an interview with Trae Young where he said that Donovan Mitchell had the idea to save the all star game with an emcee. The way they do at Rucker Park in New York. I think guys would be pumped to hear an emcee commentating the game live for everyone. It’s the best idea I’ve heard how to save the all star game.

Curry doesn't need to score that high when his teammates are stepping up. If I recall correctly, that was a back-to-back game for them, so he might be a little tired after playing so hard in the game against the Clippers. Unfortunately, they melted down in the 4th quarter and lost to the Leonard-less Clippers.

The last time they played the Lakers, the game went to OT, and they lost by only 1 point. The line was -1.5 for the Warriors at that time; this time, it's -4.5. Obviously, bookies see their significant improvement, making them a high favorite. However, the Lakers have improved since signing Dinwiddie, so maybe it will be a close game again. I'm hoping the Warriors will avenge their previous loss though.

Unexpectedly, the Bucks decided to sign Gallinari, although there were rumors earlier that teams like the Clippers, Suns, and Bulls were interested in him. It's worth noting that his performance has worsened in recent years after that ACL injury, but I think he can still do something on the court and will probably be useful to the Bucks.

I do agree, the coach is the first head to roll if teams are not looking good, except maybe in the case of Adrian Griffin, has a winning record with the Bucks, but still he was fired from his position.

So yeah, there's no security tenure for this coach, and it's like they really have to live day by day coaching and making the team great. And there are cases too that players might have demanded the management to fire this coach and hire a new one.

I know of someone who did that, and it was LeBron James. He was the reason why Coach David Blatt was fired despite having a good record. LeBron was criticized for that, but it turns out it was a good decision, as in that season, they won a championship under Coach Ty Lue. Also, there was a rumor before that LeBron wanted Coach Spoelstra to get fired, but the management didn't agree, and that caused LeBron to go back to Cleveland.

Looks like most of the teams in the NBA don't need any additions to their rosters and they just gonna fix their rotations instead of adding more players to disrupt their chemistry, especially those star players. So far, the teams that we expect to reach the playoff tree are doing good and they also dominate the league this season like the Boston Celtics, I wonder if they could keep that up and make some more wins until the end of the season games. Also, they are expected to reach the NBA finals this year since the Bucks are likely to be choked because they chose an incompetent coach instead of adding more role players to help them win more games.

TBH, I'm just hoping that the Celtics will win the title this season already.
I think they've been one step away from it for the past 2 years. Last season, they almost made an impossible 0-3 deficit comeback against the Heat. If only Tatum didn't get injured in the first minute of the game, the outcome might be different. 2 years ago, they were up against the Warriors in the NBA Finals, and lost in 6 games. Now that their roster is better, I'm hoping they can conquer the East, and win that title.

The Bucks are struggling, the Sixers might have some problems as well, and I don't see the Cavaliers as a competitor as well. The Knicks for me is their main problem just by looking at their new roster. As for the West, the Nuggets might be at the 4th spot, but they're still the defending champion, and nothing much change has happened to the team so I expect that they'll be the same as they were last year. Thunder? Timberwolves? Nah they're too young of a team to compete in the playoffs. The Clippers might have a better chance of winning at least.

I'm a Warrior fan, but I'm predicting that it will be Nuggets Vs. Celtics in the NBA Finals.

I agree with everyone and I am missing those good old ASG games as well, but the game is not the same, so the result will not be the same either. You can keep saying that NBA had better defense as much as you want, but the reality is that it didn't, it didn't had that much of a great defense, it had some defensive rules that allowed harder defense to be made, but that also resulted with a lot more injuries as well. These days, defense is still being done, I guarantee you that any defensive player of the year in the past 10 years, could be taken on the year they won it, and put in the 90's and would be one of the best there too. We are just seeing entertainment, nothing more. If you want "real" games that is played tough, you can wait until the finals, that should be fine.