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2013 NBA Shooting Stars competition participants

Two teams representing the Western Conference and two teams representing the Eastern Conference will compete in the 2013 Shooting Stars competition as part of All-Star Saturday Night on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the Toyota Center in Houston

Representing the Western Conference from the NBA are James Harden, who earned his first career All-Star Game nod in his inaugural season with the Houston Rockets, and fellow All-Star Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The WNBA stars for the West are Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx, a 2012 Olympic gold medal winner and 2011 WNBA champion, and the Seattle Storm’s Tina Thompson, the WNBA all-time leading scorer. NBA Legends Sam Cassell and Robert Horry, who played a combined 31 seasons in the league and won 10 NBA championships, round out the West representation. Cassell and Horry were teammates on a Rockets team that won back-to-back titles in 1994-95.

On behalf of the Eastern Conference from the NBA are Chris Bosh, an All-Star and key member of the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat, and All-Star Brook Lopez of the Brooklyn Nets, who earned his first All-Star nod. The WNBA Eastern Conference stars are Swin Cash of the Chicago Sky, a three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Tamika Catchings, who guided the Indiana Fever to the 2012 WNBA title and earned Finals MVP honors along the way. The NBA Legends on the East squads are Muggsy Bogues, the shortest player in NBA history at 5-3, who enjoyed a 14-year NBA career, and Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, a nine-time NBA All-Star, who finished with 26,668 career points.

In last year’s competition, Team New York, which featured Landry Fields, Allan Houston and Cappie Pondexter, defeated Team Texas in the final round with a time of :37.3. Team Texas was comprised of Chandler Parsons (Houston Rockets), Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Stars), and Kenny Smith (NBA Legend).

Shooting Stars is part of All-Star Saturday Night, an all-inclusive skills showcase, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the Toyota Center in Houston and will be televised live by TNT at 8 p.m. ET. The other events consist of the the Skills Challenge, a contest of top guards working against the clock to complete a series of passes, free throws, layups and agility drills; the Three-Point Contest; and the Slam Dunk contest. For the first time, State Farm All-Star Saturday Night will feature a new format that pits the Eastern Conference against the Western Conference in a night of competitions that will raise money for charity.

The Shooting Stars contest features one current NBA player, one current WNBA player and an NBA legend on each team. There are six numbered shooting locations of increasing difficulty, with each team attempting to make all shots in numeric order in the fastest time. Each team will select a specific player rotation to follow throughout the competition. Each shot must be made before the next player begins shooting in succession. Teams have up to two minutes to complete the entire shooting course.

2013 NBA Dunk contest participants

The 2013 NBA Slam Dunk contest will feature six dunkers competing in a two-round competition as part of All-Star Saturday Night. The new format will pit the Eastern Conference against the Western Conference in an exciting night of competition that will also raise money for charity.

The Western Conference will be represented by the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk champion Jeremy Evans of the Utah Jazz along with the Los Angeles Clippers’ Eric Bledsoe and Denver Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried. The Eastern Conference lineup will include the Indiana Pacers’ Gerald Green, Toronto Raptors’ Terrence Ross and New York Knicks’ James White.

The 2013 NBA Slam Dunk contest will consist of the three Eastern Conference players competing against the three from the Western Conference in a two-round competition. The highest scoring East competitor and the highest scoring West competitor from the Team Round will compete head-to-head to determine the champion. Fan voting will open at the beginning of the Championship Round and the player with the highest percentage of combined votes from all platforms will be champion.

Evans won the 2012 Slam Dunk contest, defeating Houston’s Chase Budinger and Indiana’s Paul George in a tight race that included over 4 million fan votes to decide the champion.

Pau Gasol inured, out at least 6-8 weeks

Los Angeles Lakers forward/center Pau Gasol, who injured his right foot in Tuesday’s game against the Nets in Brooklyn, returned to Los Angeles from Boston this morning where he was examined by foot specialist Dr. Kenneth Jung.

Jung’s diagnosis confirmed that Gasol has a tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot. Gasol is expected to be out a minimum of 6-8 weeks.

Kevin Love hopes to return in mid or late March for Timberwolves

He still hopes to return in mid to late March. But he’s not going to rush himself. Love was asked, again, if he came back too soon from his broken hand the first time. And while he said no, he at least suggested that maybe the breaks didn’t heal properly the first time. “Because, at the time I broke it, I was 10 weeks out (from the initial fractures),” Love said. “So I gave it enough time to heal. … But now that it’s fixed it feels great, and I can continue to progress.”

Love said the season has been frustrating, given his high expectations coming off the Olympics and the team’s high hopes entering the season. When asked what there was left in the season to salvage, here’s what he said: “I think coach (Rick Adelman) mentioned it today,” he said. “That we can’t look at making the playoffs right now. We can just look at our next game and our next practice and what we can do to get better every single day. Even though myself, and Chase (Budinger) and Brandon (Roy) and (Andrei Kirilenko) are out right now, we can still look at getting back on the court and getting better.”

— Reported by Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Blog)

Coaches of 2013 NBA All-Star celebrity game will be James Harden, Russell Westbrook

James Harden of the Rockets and Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder will be the coaches of the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. The event will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Assistant coaches will be singer/actress Queen Latifah and TV personality Samantha Harris.

The celebrity game is a highlight of the NBA All-Star Weekend, which kicks off Feb. 14 and culminates with the 62nd NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 17.

The celebrity teams will include Kevin Hart and Nick Cannon of “Real Husbands of Hollywood” Grammy winning singer Ne-Yo, singer/actor Trey Songz, Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, rapper Common, ABC News correspondent John Schriffen EPNS host Ryen Russillo and Terrence Jenkins of “E! News.”

— Reported by Syd Kearney of the Houston Chronicle (Blog)

Pacers home game attendance is terrible

The slogan goes, “In 49 states, it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana.” That must be a reference to the Indiana Hoosiers rather than the Pacers, who continue to be among the NBA bottom feeders in attendance. They are currently 26th in the NBA, averaging 14,592 fans in a building that seats 18,165.

The Pacers have had just four sellouts this season; opening night, both Miami games and against Chicago earlier this week.

While they have increased attendance by 1,320 fans a game from last season, that’s still not enough.

“It’s very disappointing,” Pacers guard and Indianapolis-native George Hill said. “The fans show up when we play the marquee teams, but they show up wearing the marquee team’s clothes. We feed off them. As much as we can get people there, the better off we’re going to be.”

— Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

Joakim Noah returns tonight for Bulls

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah said he will play Thursday against the Denver Nuggets after missing the past three games because of plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

A first-time All-Star, Noah dealt went through all of the Bulls’ practice on Wednesday.

“I felt pretty good,” he said before Thursday morning’s shootaround. “I’ll be all right.”

— Reported by Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago

Kobe Bryant denies pushing Dwight Howard to play with injury

The newest Lakers firestorm arrived Thursday after Kobe Bryant apparently told ESPN.com the night before that Dwight Howard needed to come back from his injured shoulder. Quickly.

But Bryant said Thursday he wasn’t prodding Howard to return.

“Not even a little bit,” Bryant said in a quiet moment after the team’s morning shoot-around, adding that he was surprised at the tone of the ESPN story. “In this case, it’s not legitimate. I was shocked.”

Bryant has a high threshold for pain, as evidenced plenty of times in the past. Howard has missed six games and left two others because of a torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Bryant understood that his own pain tolerance was through the charts.

“I’m crazy, though, so I don’t put that on other people,” he said.

— Reported by Mike Bresnahan and T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times

Danny Green, streak shooter extraordinaire

Danny Green entered his second season as a Spurs starter with the goal of establishing more consistency in his shooting stroke. But even now, well past the halfway mark, Green still has no idea what to expect on a nightly basis.

Such was the case Wednesday in frigid Minneapolis, when he torched the Target Center nets for a career-high eight 3-pointers on 12 attempts en route to 28 points.

“It came out of nowhere,” Green told the Express-News’ Jeff McDonald. “Sometimes it happens that way.”

And sometimes it doesn’t. For just as often as Green will have stretches where he seemingly can’t miss, he’ll struggle through slumps where even the most wide-open of looks carom off the rim.

— Reported by Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News (Blog)

Sixers sign Jeremy Pargo to 10-day contract; Shelvin Mack gone

The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that they have signed guard Jeremy Pargo to a 10-day contract. Additionally, the second 10-day contract guard Shelvin Mack signed on January 28 has expired. Pargo will wear #0.

Pargo (6-2, 219) was not selected in the 2009 NBA Draft and played overseas until signing as a free agent with Memphis prior to the start of last season. He appeared in 44 games with five starts for the Grizzlies in 2011-12 and was traded to Cleveland on July 25, 2012.

The Gonzaga product saw action in 25 games with 11 starts for Cleveland this season, averaging 7.8 points, 2.6 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game. He was waived by the Cavaliers on January 22 in conjunction with Cleveland’s trade with Memphis.

Pargo took advantage of an injury to Cleveland’s All-Star guard Kyrie Irving earlier this season and averaged 14.5 points and 4.4 assists over an 11-game span from November 21 through December 8. Pargo scored 20-plus points three times during that stretch, including a career-high 28 points against Philadelphia on November 21.

In 69 career games with 16 starts, Pargo is averaging 4.7 points, 1.7 assists and 1.0 rebounds in 12.6 minutes per game. His older brother, Jannero, is currently playing for the Atlanta Hawks.