CLEVELAND – Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell has been selected as a starter for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City, Utah, the league announced tonight on TNT. The 72nd annual NBA All-Star Game will be played on Sunday, Feb. 19 at Vivint Arena home of the Utah Jazz, and will air live at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
This marks the fourth NBA All-Star selection (2020-23) for Mitchell in his career, his first time being selected as a starter and his first All-Star appearance as a member of the Eastern Conference. It is the 14th time a Cavalier has been selected as a starter and Mitchell joins Shawn Kemp (1998), LeBron James (10 times) and Kyrie Irving (2 times) as the fourth Cavaliers player in franchise history to be selected as an All-Star Game starter.
He is also the first Cavalier selected as an All-Star Game starter since LeBron James in 2018. Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote to determine the 10 starters for the 72nd annual NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City. All current NBA players and a panel of basketball media accounted for 25 percent each, with each participant completing one full ballot featuring two guards and three frontcourt players from both conferences.
Mitchell (6-3, 215) is averaging a career-high 28.3 points (9th-best in NBA), 4.8 assists, 4.0 rebounds and a career-high tying 1.49 steals in a career-high 36.2 minutes while shooting career-highs in field goal percentage (.481), three-point percentage (.396) and free throw percentage (.869) over his 41 appearances (all starts) this season. The sixth-year guard is one of two NBA players this season averaging at least 25.0 points while shooting .480 field goal percentage and .390 three-point percentage (Stephen Curry) and one of three NBA players with at least 150 three-pointers made on .395 or better three-point percentage (Buddy Hield, Stephen Curry). Mitchell also ranks fifth in the NBA this season in three-pointers made (155 3FGM).
Mitchell, the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the weeks of Dec. 12-19 and Jan. 2-8, registered a franchise-record 71 points (22-34 FG, 7-15 3FG, 20-25 FT), 11 assists, eight rebounds and one block in 50 minutes during a 145-134 overtime win over Chicago on Jan. 2., marking the most points scored by any NBA player since Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game against Toronto on Jan. 22, 2006. Mitchell also became just the seventh player in NBA history to record 70 points or more in a game, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Bryant, David Thompson, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor and Devin Booker.
No other NBA player in league history accomplished a 70-point, 10-assist effort until Mitchell’s performance. The 99 points Mitchell scored or assisted on were the second-most ever behind the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points on March 2, 1962 (104 points created). This season, Mitchell has recorded five games of at least 40 points and 18 games of at least 30 points (tied for 8th-most in NBA) with Cleveland having a 14-4 record when Mitchell scores 30 or more points. Mitchell’s five 40-point games are already the third-most by a Cavaliers player in team history (LeBron James – 51 games and Kyrie Irving – 11 games).
The NBA All-Star reserves for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game will be revealed during TNT’s NBA Tip-Off on February 2.
Cleveland Cavaliers Official Press Release
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