Less than a fortnight until #The6ix is on full tilt with revelers, fans, players and the eyes of the entire basketball world upon it for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game!

All-Star hosts of TSN 1050's #1On1 with Will & Duane, Will Strickland and Duane Watson, call on Hoops Heads North boss Sean Francois, to help guide you through the NBA News, Views and Truths in this week's edition of #3MW!

Who received the biggest snub of the reserves for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game?

Strickland: Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard is the easy bake choice. After losing 80 per cent of your starting lineup from a 51-win, fourth-seeded playoff team, one can imagine that would be a tough situation from which to recover. But with the emergence of C.J. McCollum as his new backcourt mate and more than solid adjustments by Coach Of The Year candidate Terry Stotts, Lillard has been given the keys to the car in Portland is leading them to a 21-26 record, good enough for eighth place in the West. But my biggest snub is arguably a Top 6 two-way player in the NBA this season, The One Man Army, Jae Crowder of the 27-21, fifth-place Celtics of the Eastern Conference!

Francois: It's Damian Lillard. No doubt. The man is averaging 24 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists per game. These are career numbers for him in only his fourth NBA season. The Portland Trailblazers are currently sitting in the 8th spot in the Western Conference, the conference's final playoff spot. Unfortunately, I feel he fell victim to the Western Conference coaches wanting to have balance across positions on the West All-Star team, and as a result he was left on the outside looking in.

Watson: If I told you that a player who was top ten in the league in points (24.3 ppg) and top ten in assists (7.0 apg) was not selected to the All-Star Game after playing in the last two, wasn't selected would you believe me? Well Damian Lillard doesn't believe it either.

When does the Raptors franchise-record win streak end?

Strickland: The first night they decide that their record can walk into an arena and win a game. Ignore your opponent's record. Respect your opponent. Do your job. Follow these instructions and the February 19th game post All-Star break vs the Bulls in Chicago becomes a real litmus test to see how this team has grown since losing twice before to the Bulls earlier in the season and a chance to possibly extend the losing strike to 16 games. All in all, the only streaking that any Raptors fan, coach, owner or player is concerned about starts in mid-April.

Francois: I hope it doesn't, but as we know, all good things come to an end. Since I'm being asked to pick when, I think it could be when they face the Bulls in Chicago on Friday, February 19th. Now that the Raptors are winning, they now become the hunted. Every team is going to bring their best effort against them. The Raptors will have to be on top of their game even more than usual. Their 'one game at a time' approach has worked thus far, and I think they will maintain that focus to keep the winning streak (or 'losing strike', as Will & Duane say!) going for a while longer. No nights off!

Watson: I'm sticking to the claim I made in this very space last week that the Raptors would sweep their seven-game homestand. It's not that I don't think they can win on the road, (14-9). It's just that a hiccup has to come somewhere and the high altitude in Denver against a team who has already beaten them this season may just be the place where it happens. With that being said, there's no reason why they couldn't rattle off four more wins after that. Streaks are great, but it's the end of the season that matters.

Are the Los Angeles Clippers better without Blake Griffin?

Strickland: After waiting for years for Blake to fight back against all the NBA guys who bodied and talked crazy about him, he punches, of all people, the assistant equipment manager? Who was this guy? Bruce Willis as John McClain? After seeing his team going on a very solid and extended losing strike while he was out with a quad injury, Griffin guaranteed himself more time in street clothes by mixing mitts with an employee of the Clippers. Clippers Gon' Clipper. But even they aren't dumb enough to think they are better without Griffin. They MIGHT, just might, want to consider an asset management scenario where Blake can be moved for another power forward of equivalent skill, perhaps the one in New Orleans not named Ryan Anderson?

Francois:  No, Blake Griffin is a talented player who makes the Clippers better when he's playing. It's somewhat similar to what's happening with the Toronto Raptors right now while DeMarre Carroll is injured. Good teams still find ways to be effective with key personnel missing. A player like Blake Griffin will only increase his team's effectiveness once he's back practicing and healthy enough to have his usual impact on the game. He just has to ensure stays focused off the court and avoid incidents that do himself and his team no favours. Griffin's too important to the Clippers to affect the team in a negative manner.

Watson: They will have every chance to continue to prove so. With Griffin practicing his jab on a team trainer's face in Toronto, he will be out for 4-6 weeks. In addition to the fact that he will likely be suspended once his hand has healed, Blake may not be back until close to the end of the season. The Clippers have been faring well without him (12-3), but Griffin is by far the team's best player.

Despite falling in the pool that includes France and Turkey, can Canada win out to qualify for the Olympics in Rio?

Strickland: "Can" isn't the question. "Will" is. And it will take all the will, skill and talent of a very young team who got valuable experience, if not achieving the ultimate goal, at the FIBA Americas in Mexico this past summer. Andrew Wiggins, Cory Joseph, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Nik Stausakas and Andrew Nicholson will have to build on that experience with stellar play together. Add Tristan Thompson and possibly Jamal Murray to the mix and Team Canada has a decent shot vs both the huge, rugged Turkey squad featuring Piston Ersan Illyasova and Pelican Omer Asik and a smart, highly skilled and experienced France team that boast NBA talents Evan Fornier, Joffrey Lauvergne, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Tony Parker and the Stifle Tower, Rudy Gobert.

Francois: It's definitely possible, but it is certainly a tall task. The Canadian Men's Senior Team did themselves no favours by not winning their FIBA Americas semi-final game vs. Venezuela this past summer, but, I digress. Only the road ahead matters now and that's the Road to Rio. It'll be a challenging qualification process, but if they play effectively on both ends of the floor like they did for the majority of the FIBA Americas tournament, Team Canada will give themselves a GOOD chance. Ultimately, they have to come with their best effort every game. The competition in this Olympic Qualifying Tournament is too tough to have any slip ups.

Watson: It looks like it may be a cruel summer for Canada. Of the six teams in the pool, three have a higher FIBA ranking than #28 Canada (France #5, Turkey #8 & New Zealand #21) and the remaining two are no worse than four spots behind. Couple that with the possibility of Jamal Murray declaring for the NBA Draft this summer and if so, he will be unavailable to the squad. The boys will have an uphill climb.

Should Dwane Casey be coaching the East in the 2016 NBA All-Star Game?

Strickland: Yes. If Cavs coach Tyronn Lue can't keep it right and step aside, knowing full well he's only inherited David Blatt's All-Star Game coaching seat despite not coaching enough games to justify his status, Adam Silver should step in and make this right. Casey will tell you he doesn't care about it, but he does. It would be a well-earned acknowledgement and add to validation of his work over the past several seasons in Toronto.

Francois: Absolutely. I truly feel Coach Casey should be at the helm, especially once David Blatt was fired by the Cavaliers. I believe the NBA needs to review their requirements on who can be eligible as head coach for All-Star teams. I understand that the Cavaliers secured and maintained their Eastern Conference first place spot in advance of the February 1, 2016 deadline. But to allow Tyronn Lue to be the head coach of the East All-Star team when he's only been the head coach of his own team for a handful of games doesn't sit right with me; even though he was the Cavaliers head assistant coach prior to his appointment to head coach.

Watson: As great as it would be for Casey to be at the helm in his city, with two players from his team coaching the best in the conference, the team with the best record and their coaching staff receive the honour. That team is the Cleveland Cavaliers. Don't look at the amount of games Tyronn Lue has been head coach for, as he has been part of that coaching staff all season and has earned his spot. I am pretty sure Casey welcomes the time off.

Sean Francois @seanfrancois can be found working on his jumper game down home in Halifax while Duane Watson @duanewatson and Will Strickland @wallstrizzle1 stay on their hoops talk losing strike every Saturday afternoon, 3pm ET on TSN 1050's #1On1 with Will & Duane.