NBA scores 2017: John Wall probably thinks he should be an All-Star starter

There were so many great choices, but Wall is certainly playing like one.

Jan 20, 2017, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Memphis Grizzlies at Washington Wizards

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John Wall should be an Eastern Conference All-Star, but he won’t be in the starting five. On Thursday, the starters were announced with Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan locking down the backcourt.

Wall went the last three years, twice as a reserve, but this was by far his best chance at being named a starter. The East is loaded with great guards — Isaiah Thomas and Kyle Lowry both have strong cases, as well. But let’s focus on Wall, who is having his best season yet for the 23-19 Wizards.

First, there are the career highs — averaging 22.9 points, shooting 46 percent from the field and 83 percent from the line, and recording 2.2 steals per contest. His assists per game are in double digits for the third straight year, and as usual, Wall is enormous to how good the Wizards are.

He can be great and it still might not matter for Washington, like when he scored 52 points earlier this year and the Wizards still lost. But the Wizards have also won 16 of their last 22 games, a stretch that has pushed them into fifth place in the East standings. Wall has been in the middle of that.

A game like Thursday’s shows why. Wall dropped an easy 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting, tossing 13 assists to go with his three steals and five rebounds. The best rebound was his final one, where he snatched it from over a Knicks player and took it the whole way for an enormous bucket in the final 20 seconds. Look at how smooth that around-the-back dribble is. LOOK AT IT!

The Wizards outscore teams by 4.3 points with Wall on the court, but get beat a team-worst 9.3 points when he sits. He’s a go-to scorer as much as he’s a steady floor general, able to take the ball down for a fast break layup in two seconds or slow down for a play call that leads to an open shot 16 seconds later. But mostly, it’s the helter-skelter full-court sprinting that Wall is best at — with him in the lineup, the Wizards average more than 100 possessions, something no other player can claim.

The past month may not have been the most challenging schedule for Washington, but their consistent winning dates back five or six weeks now. Sustaining high-level play for that long is an eye-catching thing. They may only have three good players, but Wall is one of those three, and he has been so good.

It’s hard to definitively say Wall should have started the All-Star Game. All three of him, Thomas, and Lowry would have been worthy choices for the backcourt (probably instead of Kyrie Irving, who will be starting). But I’m sure Wall believed he deserved to be an All-Star starter. Can you blame him?

Here is all the All-Star voting

It’s LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, and DeMar DeRozan in the East.

In the West, you have Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis.

The biggest snub was Russell Westbrook of course, and the fan vote is to blame for that. Which leads us to: here are two tweaks the NBA can make for even better All-Star voting next season.

Karl-Anthony Towns scores 37 against Clippers

Karl-Anthony Towns scored nine straight points down the stretch Thursday night on the road to give the Timberwolves a 104-101 win over the Clippers. He scored 15 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter and took over the game when the Timberwolves needed him most. This was Towns’ sixth game of the season where he has scored at least 30 points. The Timberwolves also snapped a six-game road losing streak with the win.

DeAndre Jordan scored a career-high 29 points on Thursday, but it wasn’t enough without Blake Griffin and Chris Paul on the court as the Clippers saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end.

Carmelo Anthony had a roller coaster of an evening

He broke a team record: 25 points in the second quarter, which is the most ever by any Knick in a quarter.

He also shot this airball. How.

Sometimes, that’s just how it goes.

Bad news for the Spurs

Pau Gasol is out indefinitely after fracturing a bone in his finger during warmups. Our best guess, looking at other metacarpal injuries, is that he’ll miss a month or two. A lot of it depends on whether he needs surgery, though.

What is this!?

Kristian Winfield has more on scene from the Knicks game about what appears to be a coach behaving incredibly illegally and literally stepping all the way onto the floor with the ball in the area.