The NBA All-Star game is more than just a game as the league turns the event into a weekend-long affair. Things like the dunk contest, skills competition and the celebrity All-Star game all bring some flare to the NBA game.

Although those other events draw a different and more youthful audience, the All-Star game is still the main dish as the best players on the planet do battle. The game is in Houston and there are plenty of headlines already soaring about how things are going to shake out in the 62nd exhibition between East and West.

Last year Kevin Durant was named MVP and the West rolled to their second straight victory. Entering this contest Durant is the favorite to take home the MVP honors again with odds of 13/2–second is LeBron James who has 9/1 odds to bring home the same hardware that he won back in 2006 which was also in Houston. Don’t sleep on the Houston Rockets lone representative in James Harden who will reunite with his former Oklahoma City Thunder comrades in front of his home crowd.

My favorite to win this years All-Star MVP is Dwayne Wade who has fielded questions about LeBron’s greatness all month long and is going to take it out on the entire Western Conference. Wade is no stranger to producing in these contests as he also won the award in 2010 when the East was last victorious in a 141-139 thriller.

The other bet involves the score of the game which sits at 290 points between the two teams final tallies. In my mind this game will continue to make defense a second-priority as I see both teams breaking the 145 point barrier.