We’ve officially reached the NBA’s unofficial halfway point as the league heads off to the All-Star break with no games until next Wednesday. The Nuggets enter the break as the hottest team in the league, winning eight straight games and pulling within a half-game of the two-seed in the Western Conference at 36-19.
For most of the Nuggets, this break represents a week off where many players will go on tropical vacations with family or spend some time at home. But for the seventh straight season, Nikola Jokic will get no break as he’ll represent Denver in the All-Star game as he was the leading vote-getter and starting center for the West.
But for the first time, Jokic will be joined in San Francisco by another Nugget as Julian Strawther was invited to compete in the NBA Rising Stars as an injury replacement for Scoot Henderson. It’s a well-deserved honor for the second-year player Strawther, who has averaged almost 10 points a game this season and has been a key bench contributor for the team.
When is the 2025 Castrol Rising Stars?
The All-Star weekend action kicks off on Friday night at 5 PM MT with the Celebrity Game, but it’s followed by the Rising Stars, which gets underway at 7 PM MT. Four teams with 8 players each will play a mini-tournament to determine a winner. Strawther will play for “Team M” coached by NBA legend, Mitch Richmond.
How to watch 2025 Castrol Rising Stars
The Rising Stars will be televised live on TNT, TruTV, and MAX. The game can also be streamed on the NBA, TNT, TruTV, or MAX apps. The Rising Stars will also hold a morning practice at 10:30 AM MT on Friday which can be viewed live on NBAtv or streamed on the NBA app.
New All-Star format opens door for Strawther vs. Jokic
This year, with the new All-Star Game format, there is a new wrinkle where the team that wins the Rising Stars will actually advance to play on Sunday as one of the teams in the All-Star Game. The Inside the NBA crew drafted three All-Star teams from the 24-player pool, and the fourth team in that mini-tournament will be the winner of Rising Stars.
That means that if Team M can advance and win the Rising Stars, Strawther would play with the big boys on Sunday as part of the league’s market event. If it works out, Strawther and his team could actually be battling it out with Nikola Jokic and other All-Stars in a game that would certainly bring a smile to the face of Nuggets fans.