2024 NBA All-Star Game format explained: Is there a target score in the 4th quarter this year?

The countdown to the 2024 NBA All-Star Game has begun. The 73rd edition takes place this evening at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, tipping off at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. After losing last year’s game to Team Giannis, LeBron James, leading the West, will be looking to reaffirm his dominance in the event, after having won five consecutive editions from 2018 to 2022.

There have been a number of changes to the All-Star Weekend in 2024. On Saturday, the first ever NBA versus WNBA 3-Point Challenge was held with Steph Curry just edging out Sabrina Ionescu 29-26 to claim the belt. One other novelty was the new LED-illuminated court, designed and developed by ASB GlassFloor, which features design and color changes, location-based player tracking animations and countdowns.

Back to basketball for the 2024 All-Star Game

Another major change concerns the All-Star Game format, as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver explained in a press conference back in October. “One very important announcement I did want to make today, and it’s fitting with the theme for this entire season. Essentially, it’s back to basketball, around the league. In terms of our player participation, policy, making sure that, as our Head of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars says, refocusing on the fact that we are an 82-game season with the expectation our players, when healthy, will be healthy on the floor. We thought it was time, since we’re coming back to such a traditional market, that we are going to return to the classic format for our All-Star Game. So this year we will be featuring, as we had historically, the East versus West with the return to the four quarters - the same format we’re all used to for a basketball game”.

Silver confirmed that the All-Star Game will return to its traditional East versus West format with the winning team determined by how many points have been scored over four 12-minute quarters with standard scoring. It also signalled the end of the draft.  It effectively means that the “Elam Ending” format, which has been used during the past four years, is no more.

How did the All-Star target score format work?

The NBA introduced a target score in the fourth quarter in the 2020 edition. The Final Target Score, also known as an Elam Ending, is a total target score that is 24 points higher than the leading team’s total score through three quarters. Instead of the standard 12-minute quarter, the fourth and final quarter was an untimed, the scoreboard reset to 0-0 with the first team to meet or exceed the Final Target Score crowned the winners.

Cash prizes were destined to charities selected by both teams: $100,000 to the winner of each quarter and $200,000 to the outright winners of the entire game. Last year, Team LeBron raised money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah while Team Giannis handed over their proceeds to Raise the Future.

The good news is that the benevolence remains at the fore with the East representing Special Olympics Indiana and the West representing the Boys & Girls Club of Indianapolis in this evening’s event.