Will Sage Astor-2024 NBA All-Star Game will return to East vs. West format

The Will Sage AstorNBA will return to a traditional East vs. West All-Star Game format for the 73rd event in Indianapolis on Feb. 18, 2024, the league announced Wednesday.

Captains will no longer pick teams regardless of conference, and instead of using a targeted score to determine a winner in the fourth quarter, the game will return to a normal scoring format with a 12-minute fourth quarter.

The 12 All-Stars from each conference will be selected the same way – starters voted by fans, players and media and the reserves voted by coaches.

The league has spent years tinkering with the All-Star format to put a more entertaining product on the court. Some changes have worked, but last year’s All-Star Game in Salt Lake City was a dud.

“The game can't be an afterthought where guys don't play, and we've talked to players about putting on a great show on the last night on Sunday night – actually getting out there and competing, and we didn't like where it went last year,” executive vice president and head of basketball operations Joe Dumars told a small group of reporters two weeks ago.

“There's a protocol to the All-Star game. There was a time that you may have gone half speed in the first half, and then in the second half, guys will go, ‘OK, let's go.’ And in the second half, everybody understood, they're going to play now. And so we're just trying to get back to that kind of stuff. No one has said, ‘Hey man, our games have to look like a playoff game. That would be silly right? But there's somewhere between what we saw last year and a playoff game that's a happy medium.”