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With Friday evening’s celeb recreation over, it was time for some of the anticipated elements of NBA All-Star weekend, due to Saturday evening’s festivities, which included the Expertise competitors, 3-point contest, and Dunk contest.
Peep a breakdown and the highlights from every occasion under.
Expertise Problem
First up was the abilities problem, the place the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley took on the Warriors’ Draymond Inexperienced and Moses Moody, the San Antonio Spurs Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama, and Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher, the highest two picks within the 2024 draft.
The competitors often isn’t too thrilling, so the Cavs’ win wasn’t even probably the most memorable a part of the occasion. As an alternative, Paul and Wemby tried to hack the system by not specializing in making pictures however on aiming to have the quickest time. So, as a substitute of taking pictures, the Spurs teammates simply knocked the balls off the rack and ran to the following station. Whereas at first, it appeared like they efficiently skirted the principles, as they flew by means of the problem, they had been later eradicated.
3-Level Competitors
Subsequent was the 3-point Competitors, which featured a few of the league’s sharpest shooters from past the arc, similar to Jalen Brunson, Darius Garland, Buddy Hield, Cade Cunningham, Tyler Herro, and Damian Lillard, who was on the lookout for athree-peatt.
Sadly, Dame was eradicated within the first spherical. Nevertheless, the primary spherical proved to be successful for the house crowd’s Hield, who tied teammate Steph Curry’s file with a 31-point efficiency. Regardless of discovering his groove, Hield couldn’t stick with it within the last spherical, coming in second place with 23, in comparison with winner Tyler Herro’s 24. Others, like Cam Johnson, Norman Powell, and Cade Cunningham, didn’t make it previous the primary spherical.
Dunk Contest
One of many occasions at All-Star weekend that hasn’t dwindled within the hype is the Dunk Contest, and Mac McClung was again to make historical past because the league’s first-ever participant to win three in a row. At 26, he was the elder statesman, joined by Matas Buzelis, Andre Jackson, and Stephon Fortress, with whom he battled it out ultimately.
Fortress ditched any props, counting on his athleticism, highlighted by his third dunk, the place he caught a made layup falling out of the web and went between the legs earlier than slam dunking it. For his last, he did a 360 behind the again, ending with a one-handed dunk.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t be topped by McClung, who began the competitors by leaping over a Kia, grabbing the ball from somebody poking out of the sunroof, after which going for the reverse dunk.
It was adopted by a 360-degree two-handed dunk as he leaped over Nate Dougherty. His last two had been much more inventive, together with his third, the place he jumped over and grabbed the ball from somebody spinning on a hoverboard whereas concurrently grabbing one other ball atop the rim and dunking each. Within the last spherical, he cemented the three-peat by leaping over 6’11” Evan Mobley and tapping the ball on the rim earlier than dunking it.
Sidenote: The Tremendous Bowl might have had a Kendrick Lamar halftime present, however it was no match for LiAngelo Ball taking middle courtroom to carry out his nostalgic hit, ‘Tweaker.’
See social media’s response to the NBA’s Saturday evening all-star weekend festivities under.
NBA All-Star Saturday: Mac McClung Makes Dunk Contest Historical past, Chris Paul And Wemby Caught Dishonest, & Extra
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