The Opening Tip

• The best games on TV this weekend 
• LeBron isn’t too hyped about the All-Star Game
• Jared Dudley called out Paul George in his new “book," which is really more of a pamphlet

1. Three games to plan your Friday and Saturday around

2. Daily GIF: Don’t turn your back on LeBron

In last night’s matchup of two Western Conference contenders, the Lakers outscored the Nuggets by 31 points in the second half for a 114-93 win. LeBron finished with a 27-10-10 triple-double.

His best play was the pass above to Talen Horton-Tucker, who sounds like a Dr. Suess character more than an NBA player.

PS: Bol Bol is the defender that got beat backdoor in the GIF above. That feels like a good enough opportunity to point out that, on this day 34 years ago, Bol’s dad Manute blocked 12 shots in 23 minutes.

3. Trivia time

4. LeBron sounds off on the recently-announced All-Star Game

The NBA and NBAPA finalized plans yesterday to hold a one-day All-Star Weekend in Atlanta on March 7. There will be an All-Star Game, and the league is looking into adding a dunk contest and a 3-point shooting contest.

To add an exhibition game to a volatile schedule a year into an exhausting pandemic seems counter-intuitive, though the players’ union agreed to it, and the league needs to begin recuperating some of the lost money from last year’s bubble and this year’s lack of fans.

There are two reasonable sides to the argument. LeBron, who harshly denounced the idea last night, falls on the anti side:
 

Two things: 

1. LeBron definitely had a nice vacation in Miami lined up. 
2. LeBron knows how much gravitas his words hold. Everything he does is calculated -- scripted almost, except for maybe the time he called the guy in Atlanta “ol’ steroid ass.”

Will he go, though?
 

(If I’m selected, he said.) 

5. “God bless you, Jared Dudley”

The freshest beef in the NBA is between Jared Dudley and Paul George.

Allow us to explain.

Dudley released a “book” on Feb. 2, which is actually only 42 pages long. (To quote Larry David during Jason Alexander’s “book” release party, “It’s not so much a book as a pamphlet -- kind of on the thin side isn’t it?”) Don’t show us an extended Players’ Tribune article and call it a book, Dud.

Anyways, the newsworthy item is less so the book and more so what he wrote about George, who he felt was acting like a champion last season without the pedigree to back it up:
 

(Anthony Davis won one playoff series in seven seasons before going to L.A.)

The comments were relayed to George during a recent postgame interview.

His response:
 

A good response, for sure. An 8-out-10 response.

But the best response came from Clippers coach Ty Lue, who committed verbal assault in four words:
 

6.  Quick hits

• Here are the results from the first round of fan voting for the All-Star Game. 
• Non-ironic Kelly Oubre update: He had 40 points last night on 14-of-21 shooting.  
• Undrafted Cleveland rookie Lamar Stevens shared a wholesome text from his grandma after the Cavs’ game against the Clippers: “I can NOT believe you’re guarding Mr. Leonard. Go head Lamar you are doing IT.” 
• Chuck had a good mini rant about shooting too many 3s on Inside the NBA last night. 
• On a recent podcast, Zach Lowe called Luka Doncic a whiner, to which Mark Cuban responded, “F*ck you Zach Lowe, you don’t know sh*t.”
• Eastern Conference update: Miami lost to Washington on Wednesday and is now 7-14 with only 51 games left.
• Donovan Mitchell miscalculated (and missed) his wide open dunk last night.

7.  Off the press

• Does Luka Garza have a place in the NBA? [ESPN]
• The NBA’s youngest team is also one of its deepest [The Ringer]
• Zach Lowe’s 10 likes and dislikes [ESPN]

Trivia answers: Manute Bol and Mark Eaton