The 2018 All-Star festivities are already underway. With Quavo taking home the Celebrity Game MVP and Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Kings winning the Rising Stars MVP for Team World, we're itching that much closer to the marquee matchup on Sunday evening in Los Angeles. At All-Star practice today, Paul George was approached by Matt Velazquez on who he was most looking forward to playing tomorrow night.

Paul George started off with a vague and general response as expected by most experienced NBA stars to avoid being misquoted by the media. But he did go on to say that ‘he knew' that Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to bring it on the defensive end:

As of the All-Star break, Antetokounmpo averages 1.9 blocks/game this season, which puts him at No. 6 in the league. Ironically, in terms of steals per game, George is currently leading the league at 2.2 per game, while Antetokounmpo is only 26th in the league at 1.4 steals per game.

Paul George and Carmelo Anthony
Chris Szagola/Associated Press

With $100,000 on the line for the winning team, this year's All-Star game is bound to be far more competitive than former years. It definitely can't be less competitive than last year where the teams were shooting to hit a combined 400 points. The changes with the prize money along with the drafting implementation by Team Stephen and Team LeBron will give this years' All-Star weekend quite the spin.

This is Antetokounmpo's first season being in the All-Star game, making a staggering $22,471,910. Last season, he made just $2,995,421 as part of his rookie contract. So the $100,000 on the line definitely will have less value to him overall.

giannis antetokounmpo

It'll be exciting to see if Antetokounmpo is actually as defensive as George expects him to be in this year's All-Star Game.