NBA All-Star Game 2017: When and Where to Catch Starting Lineup Announcement

The NBA All-Star Game will take place February 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

Here's a look at when and where to watch the starting lineup announcement, the latest fan voting results and three storylines this season.

Starting Lineup Announcement

When: Thursday, Jan. 19

Time: 7 p.m. ET

TV: TNT

NBA All-Star Fan Voting (as of Jan. 12)

Eastern Conference			Western Conference
Frontcourt	Team	Votes	Frontcourt	Team	Votes
LeBron James	CLE	1,066,147	Kevin Durant	GS	987,479
Giannis Antetokounmpo	MIL	963,110	Zaza Pachulia	GS	823,376
Kevin Love	CLE	473,328	Kawhi Leonard	SA	630,766
Joel Embiid	PHI	457,300	Anthony Davis	NO	567,201
Jimmy Butler	CHI	400,448	Draymond Green	GS	464,319
Guards			Guards
Kyrie Irving	CLE	971,362	Stephen Curry	GS	990,390
Dwyane Wade	CHI	514,866	James Harden	HOU	961,685
DeMar DeRozan	TOR	453,538	Russell Westbrook	OKC	899,024
Isaiah Thomas	BOS	401,671	Klay Thompson	GS	555,430
Kyle Lowry	TOR	256,668	Chris Paul	LAC	379,076

via NBA.com

Three All-Star Game Storylines

1. NBA Finals Preview?

Noah Graham/Getty Images

The clubhouse leaders to represent the East and West in the NBA Finals, undoubtedly, are the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors.

That's evident by the latest standings (both teams are in first place in their respective conferences) as well as fan All-Star balloting, which features eight combined Cavs and Warriors.

Seven of them legitimately belong in the All-Star conversation (more on the eighth in the next section), meaning that we could see a situation where 70 percent of the court contains players from just two teams, but the Dubs have a chance to match the record for having the most All-Star Game participants from one team in a season.

Seven teams have sent four players to the same All-Star Game, with the NBA champion 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers starting three players (Maurice Cheeks, Moses Malone and Julius Erving), per nba-allstar.com.

An interesting statistic to close this section: Only two of those aforementioned seven teams won the NBA Finals that same year, with the second being the 1961-62 Boston Celtics, which is the only team to send four future Hall of Famers to the same All-Star Game.

2. First-Time All-Stars

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and...Zaza Pachulia?

The Greek Freak is averaging 23.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per night and has the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoff mix even though swingman Khris Middleton (18 points per game last year) has been injured all season.

Oh, and he also does stuff like this every single night:

Meanwhile, the rookie Embiid is averaging 19.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game even though he's been on strict minute restrictions all season. He's breathed life into a 76ers team that has won just 47 combined games in the last three full seasons.

Embiid also made social media waves trying to get as many votes as possible from fans before balloting closed Monday night, even tweeting WWE Superstar (and executive vice-president) Triple H for some help.

It would be great to see Embiid and Antetokounmpo show off at the All-Star Game, but how does Pachulia (5.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game) fit in?

The fans are coming out in droves for the affable Pachulia—the guess here, based off this NBA.com article, is that many of them are from his home country of Georgia—but don't hold your breath waiting to see him face off against Embiid.

Per NBA.com, here is how the votes count:

"

Fans will account for 50 percent of the vote to determine the 10 starters for the 66th NBA All-Star Game, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.  All current NBA players and a panel of basketball media will account for 25 percent each, with each participant completing one full ballot featuring two guards and three frontcourt players from both conferences.

"

That puts Pachulia out of the All-Star Game discussion, as the guess here is that the media and players won't see his candidacy in the same way as the fans, but he can still take solace in the fact that he has as great a shot as any to be an NBA champion this year.

3. Can a Team Get to 200?

This exhibition is a far cry from 1953, when Minneapolis Lakers center George Mikan was the All-Star Game MVP in a 79-75 slugfest.

These days, the losing team will score far more than the 1953 game's point total combined. Last year, the East lost by 23 even though it scored 173 points, which was the second-highest point total of any team in NBA All-Star Game history.

In fact, the last three All-Star games have set a record for total points. In other words, the 2016 game beat the record set by the 2015 game, which beat the record by the 2014 game, which set the all-time record.

Given the amount of offensive star power that will be on the court, the lack of defensive effort and the NBA's general trend of increased offense (per basketball-reference.com, teams are averaging 104.8 points per game this year as of games completed through January 15, the highest mark in 24 seasons), it wouldn't be too surprising if we finally see an All-Star team crack the 200-point barrier.