NBA All-Star Game 2013: Starters set for February showcase

Keys, a 14-time Grammy winner, will perform several of her hits as part of the All-Star Game “Entertainment Series presented by Sean John at Macy’s.” This series will include numerous other performances over the course of the weekend. Earlier in the night, NE-YO will welcome the All-Star participants to the court with a performance of some of his hits, which will then be followed by nine-time Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend singing the U.S. National Anthem. Gloria Reuben, who currently stars in the film “Lincoln,” will sing the Canadian National Anthem.

On Saturday night, Nick Cannon, not the usual TNT crew, will be hosting the festivities that include the Skills Challenge, the Three-Point Contest and the Slam Dunk Contest. The evening will feature performances from Ellie Goulding, Phillip Phillips and the recently reunited Fall Out Boy. RaVaughn will perform the U.S National Anthem and Michelle Peavy will sing the Canadian National Anthem.

Four of the five starters for the Western Conference play in Los Angeles, so the NBA’s announcement of the Western Conference reserves for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game roster is a welcome one for other teams around the league. With so many stars at every position, the battle to make the squad was awfully close.

In the end, here are your 2013 Western Conference All-Star reserves:

Picking NBA All-Star Game reserves often isn’t an easy task -- there are a ridiculous amount of deserving players with seemingly cast-iron cases, and everyone has a different value system in judging those players. Luckily, the fan voters did a solid job in choosing starters in 2013. There are no egregious names among the starters, so there are few reserve slots that need to be dedicated as make-up spaces.

Mike Prada and I share below who we’d vote for as NBA All-Star reserves this season. Let’s start with the

The selection broke a tie with Jerry West, Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal, all of whom were chosen for the All-Star Game 14 consecutive times.

The same 10 players who have lead most of the voting for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game will be the starters in Houston. The lineup was unveiled on TNT Thursday evening, and there ended up being no surprises.