Splash Brothers head up 3-Point field; bigs enter Skills Challenge
The NBA on Thursday announced the full list of competitors for the All-Star Saturday Night events at this month’s 2016 NBA All-Star Game in Toronto, and with all due respect to the Verizon Slam Dunk contest, it looks for the second straight year like the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest is going to be the headlining event of the evening.
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Just check out this stacked field of contestants, which features five All-Stars, headlined by the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player:
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors will return to defend his 2015 Three-Point Shootout crown. He’ll be joined by four fellow All-Stars: Splash Brother and backcourt partner Klay Thompson, Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat, and James Harden of the Houston Rockets. J.J. Redick of the Los Angeles Clippers, rookie Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns and Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks round out the stacked field.
Curry leads the NBA in both 3-pointers made and attempted this season, and is on pace to shatter the all-time records in both categories, which he set last year. Thompson ranks second in makes and third in attempts; Harden’s third in makes and second in attempts (despite shooting a career-worst-tying 34.9 percent from 3-point range); Lowry’s fourth in the former and fifth in the latter.
Redick’s shooting a league-best 48.2 percent from deep for the season, with Curry fourth (45.9 percent), Thompson seventh (43.4 percent), Booker 12th (41.8 percent) and Middleton 15th (41.1 percent). And while the inclusion of the 6-foot-11 Bosh might raise some eyebrows, he’s shooting nearly 37 percent on more than four long balls per game, he’s become quite the stretchy big man over the years, and you’d be hard-pressed to say he hasn’t earned some sort of All-Star Saturday placement after leading the most dominant dynasty in the history of the now-defunct Shooting Stars competition. Then again, given Torontonians’ dicey relationship with Bosh since he left in free agency to join the Miami Heat in 2010, he might not necessarily be welcome as a conquering hero:
Curry will enter as your odds-on favorite after knocking down 13 straight long balls in a 27-point final round en route to victory last year, and will look to become the TK multiple-time winner of the competition, joining Larry Bird, Craig Hodges, Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek, Peja Stojakovic and Jason Kapono. Remember, though, that teammate Thompson also made last year’s championship round, and Redick might have redemption on his mind after oddly having two made triples waved off last season for having his foot on the 3-point line when he jumped. And don’t count out Lowry, who’s shooting a career-best 38.8 percent from deep and who’ll surely want to make a strong showing in front of the hometown crowd at Air Canada Centre.
The rules for the contest, for your studying and memorization pleasure:
In the two-round, timed competition, five shooting locations are positioned around the three-point arc. Four racks contain four orange balls (each worth one point) and one multi-colored “money” ball (worth two points). The fifth rack is a special “all money ball” rack, which each participant can place at any of the five shooting locations. Every ball on this rack is worth two points. The players have one minute to shoot as many as the 25 balls as they can. The three competitors with the highest scores in the first round advance to the championship round.
The NBA also announced the competitors in the Skills Challenge, which this year will feature multiple big men for the first time in the event’s history:
Four frontcourt players — All-Stars Draymond Green of the Warriors, DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings and Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans, plus Rookie of the Year favorite Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves — will look to show off their all-around gifts in the obstacle-course competition highlighting players’ passing, ball-handling, agility and shooting prowess. They’ll join defending champion Patrick Beverley of the Rockets, All-Star Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics, Jordan Clarkson the Los Angeles Lakers and C.J. McCollum of the Portland Trail Blazers in the contest, which for the second straight year will feature a head-to-head, bracket-style format; the opening-round matchups in the bracket aren’t yet determined.
Contestants will pick up a ball off a pedestal, dribble around five pylons before attempting to fire a chest pass through a standing target, pick up a new ball and speed dribble the length of the court before trying a layup or dunk, then grab the ball he just laid in/dunked, racing to a designated spot (or behind it) and knocking down a 3-pointer. Complete the course faster than your head-to-head opponent, and you move onto the next round.
Here is a truly terrifying addendum to the contest’s rules:
• DISQUALIFICATION – players are subject to disqualification at the final discretion/judgment of the referee for (1) failure to complete all the challenges or (2) deliberately interfering with his opponent or his opponent’s ball.
• INSTANT REPLAY — at the referee’s discretion, instant replay may be utilized for clarification of rules compliance.
Let us sincerely pray that the dribbling and passing exhibition does not come down to the need to go to Secaucus for a replay review.
All-Star Saturday Night will be air on TNT in the U.S. at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb, 13. Sportsnet and TSN will simulcast the event in Canada.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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