The New York Knicks forward suffered the injury early in the first quarter of the Knicks’ 92-88 loss to Toronto when DeMar DeRozan elbowed him in the arm on a drive.

Anthony said he felt numbness throughout the game and called the contusion “kind of deep.”

If he feels discomfort leading up to Sunday evening’s game, Anthony said he would sit out rather than risk further injury.

“I’m not going to force it, definitely not going to force it,” Anthony said. “As bad as I would want to play in the All-Star Game, participate, if I can’t go, I can’t go. Nothing I can do about that.”

Anthony struggled with his shot throughout the Knicks’ loss on Wednesday, their third in four games heading into the All-Star break.

Anthony missed 19-of-24 shots and had just 12 points. It was the third game this season in which he failed to score 20 points.

The injury affected Anthony’s shot throughout the game.

“It was kind of like a dead arm out there,” he said. “Just a matter of trying to get through it, trying to get some feeling back into it.”

Anthony, a six-time All-Star, entered play Wednesday averaging 29 points per game, tied with Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant for the highest mark in the NBA.

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2013 NBA All-Star Starters
Eastern Conference
Player Votes
LeBron James, MIA 1,583,646
Carmelo Anthony, NYK 1,460,950
Dwyane Wade, MIA 1,052,310
Rajon Rondo, BOS 924,180
Kevin Garnett, BOS 553,222
Western Conference
Player Votes
Kobe Bryant, LAL 1,591,437
Kevin Durant, OKC 1,504,047
Chris Paul, LAC 929,155
Dwight Howard, LAL 922,070
Blake Griffin, LAC 863,832

Lakers teammate Dwight Howard and the Clippers’ Chris Paul and Blake Griffin will join Bryant in the Western Conference lineup for the Feb. 17 game in Houston. Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the MVP of last year’s game, rounds out the five.

Kevin Garnett held off Chris Bosh in fan balloting, giving the East two Boston Celtics and two Miami Heat players. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade will represent the defending champions and receive passes from Rajon Rondo. New York’s Carmelo Anthony is the other starter.

Bryant finished with 1,591,437 votes, edging James by about 7,800 to finish as the leading vote-getter and break a tie with Shaquille O’Neal, Jerry West and Karl Malone for the most consecutive starting nods.

The NBA’s leading scorer is a four-time MVP of the All-Star Game and last year became its career scoring leader.

Garnett beat Bosh, who took to Twitter to stump for votes in the final days of balloting, by about 25,000 votes. He tied Bryant and O’Neal for second all time with his 15th selection behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was selected to 19 games.

It’s the second straight year that Los Angeles teams will make up four players. Last year it was Bryant, Paul, Griffin and Andrew Bynum, who was dealt to Philadelphia in part of the deal that sent Howard from Orlando to the Lakers.

The ballot changed this season, eliminating the center position. Fans were required to vote for three frontcourt players and two guards.

They picked an interesting mix in the East. Anthony and Garnett exchanged words during a game on Jan. 7, and Anthony was suspended one game by the NBA when he tried to confront Garnett afterward in the tunnel area at Madison Square Garden and by the team bus.

Rondo was injured in the playoffs two years ago after getting tangled up with Wade and landing awkwardly on his arm, part of what’s become a tense rivalry between the Celtics and Heat.

Reserves will be announced next Thursday. Coaches will vote for seven players in their conferences: two guards, three frontcourt players and two players regardless of position. They can’t vote for a player on their own team.

The post NBA All-Star starters announced appeared first on IdealCapper.

When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oddsmakers currently have the East All-Stars listed as 3½-point favorites versus the West All-Stars, while the game’s total is sitting at 285.

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GAME QUICK FACTS
First Held: 1951
Series Record: East 36, West 24
2012 Dates: Feb. 24-26
2012 Site: Orlando – Amway Center
All-Star Friday: Celebrity All-Star Game, (ESPN, 7 ET); Rising Stars Challenge, (TNT/ESPN Radio, 9 ET)
All-Star Saturday: Shooting Stars, Three-Point Shootout, Taco Bell Skill Challenge, Slam Dunk Contest (TNT/ESPN Radio, 8 ET)
All-Star Sunday: 2012 NBA All-Star Game, (TNT/ESPN Radio, 7 ET)

Jeremy Lin has been the NBA’s biggest story this month, but the focus shifted back to Howard, where it began this season, with the NBA’s midseason event in the city he insists he loves but wants to leave.

That meant a wall of reporters and cameras surrounding him, asking the same questions Carmelo Anthony was peppered with last year during All-Star Friday, just before his trade request from Denver was granted.

“Thank you, Dwight!” Anthony yelled when he spotted the swarm. “It’s your turn!”

Howard has asked for a trade, but he’s still here and there’s no telling for how much longer. The Magic could deal their center before the March 15 trade deadline, or hold onto him all season and risk losing him while getting nothing back in July.

Howard’s table was between Anthony and LeBron James, two of the league’s best-known stars. Yet neither had anywhere near the attention of Howard, and Anthony was glad to yield the spotlight after his status overshadowed last year’s festivities in Los Angeles.

“I’m glad it’s not me anymore,” Anthony said.

James went through the free agency circus the season before, and acknowledged that it wore on him.

“Yeah, absolutely,” James said. “I know exactly what he’s going through. It’s a tough situation but he’s going to handle it. He’s a man. He’s going to handle it. He’s going to do what’s best for him.”

Lin wasn’t forgotten, even after James and the Heat on Thursday forced him into the worst game since he became the Knicks’ starter earlier this month. Many All-Stars were asked about Lin, who was playing only in Friday’s Rising Stars Challenge featuring rookies and second-year players yet was given his own evening press conference to accommodate the large media interest.

Howard said every time he watches TV, he sees something about Lin, the NBA’s first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He was asked if there was anything that could stop the undrafted guard from Harvard.

“Uh, he hasn’t gone up against the Great Wall of Orlando yet,” Howard said.

This wall may be moveable.

The Magic have given Howard’s agent permission to discuss deals with the Nets, Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, and there was plenty of speculation he could be dealt even before the season began, just as Chris Paul was.

That would have created an awkward All-Star reunion.

Howard literally towers over this city, his face pictured on billboards overlooking the interstate and on a giant Adidas ad high atop the outside of the Amway Center. This region caters to visitors, but didn’t have to consider how it would have welcomed Howard.

“I’m here, so it doesn’t matter what would’ve or should’ve happened,” he said. “But you know I’m here and we want to have a great time. I’m looking forward to all the events and showing everybody my city.”

With its new arena in just its second season, Orlando is hosting the All-Star game for the first time since 1992, one of the NBA’s most memorable. Magic Johnson won MVP honors only a few months following his retirement after contracting the HIV virus.

Even Shaquille O’Neal, who has been critical of Howard in the past, says he hopes the MVP this time goes to Howard. O’Neal started his career with the Magic before bolting as a free agent, and he said recently it would be a “travesty” if Howard leaves.

If fans fear Howard following Shaq’s path, he said they never tell him.

“Whatever you decide to do, we’re behind you 100 percent,” they say, according to Howard.

“They’ve been great,” Howard added. “Despite what people may say or think, the fans here have always been great to me. I really appreciate it. They’ve showed me nothing but love from Day 1 and I’ve done the same thing. This city means a lot to me.”

Howard said he was looking forward to playing this weekend with James, Anthony and Dwyane Wade, who join league MVP Derrick Rose in the powerful Eastern Conference starting lineup.

The West is an L.A. story, with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum of the Lakers joining the Clippers’ Paul and Blake Griffin. Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant rounds out the first five.

The All-Star weekend would have been in jeopardy had the lockout lasted much longer. An agreement was reached during Thanksgiving weekend and the season opened on Christmas, allowing for a 66-game schedule.

The play has been sloppy and injuries have piled up as players navigate a schedule that forced them to play on three straight nights for the first time since 1999, following the last work stoppage. All the All-Stars said they were eager to be here, even though many probably would benefit from the rest.

And Wade said ugly play won’t be a problem Sunday night.

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