The best and worst of All-Star Saturday were the dunk contest and the Curry-Ionescu shootout, which fizzled.

The dunk competition has ended. The NBA-WNBA three-point game is still going on. 

Here are Saturday night’s NBA All-Star highlights, both good and bad.

Best: Damian Lillard repeats as three-point champion

Before Saturday night, few would have compared former NBA player Damian Lillard to Jason Kapono. However, that all changed when Lillard became the first player to win back-to-back three-point contests since Kapono in 2007 and 2008.

The eight-time All-Star made things dramatic by missing the first four balls on his final rack, needing to make his final shot to win against Hawks guard Trae Young.

Lillard became the seventh player in league history to win consecutive three-point contests, also joining Larry Bird (1986-88), Craig Hodges (1990-92), Mark Price (1993-94), Jeff Hornacek (1998, 2000) and Peja Stojakovic (2002-03).

Worst: Jaylen Brown’s dunk contest

Prior to the dunk competition, the Celtics forward was praised for being the first All-Star to compete since 2018, but he left the festivities on Saturday night as possibly the greatest villain. After receiving mockery for his second dunk over YouTuber Kai Cenat, he made it to the finals in a dubious manner.

The attempt was lousy. While Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Mac McClung, who won for the second year in a row, jumped over Shaquille O’Neal on dunk attempts, the best Brown could do was a leap over a streamer? It was nice of Brown to participate, but he may have scared off other All-Stars from following his lead and suffering the same fate.

Best: Indiana Pacers in the skills competition

The home team Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, and Myles Turner, started the evening mastering the fundamentals in the skills competition.

As was the case during the first half of the season, Haliburton was the breakout star, beating the All-Star group consisting of Trae Young, Scottie Barnes and Tyrese Maxey in a tiebreak by draining a halfcourt shot 20.5 seconds faster than the All-Star trio could.

Worst: Lefty Anthony Edwards

When the 2020 NBA Draft’s first overall pick declared he would shoot left-handed during All-Star weekend, he wasn’t lying.

The Timberwolves probably hope he gets it out of his system in Indiana because Edwards’ left-handed shot looked rough. He missed all of his three-point attempts in the skill competition, including two that hit the side of the backboard.

Best: Sabrina Ionescu and Stephen Curry shoot lights out

Ionescu and Curry’s three-pointers in the opening NBA vs. WNBA three-point competition were the night’s high point. Ionescu started the game strong, making nine of her first ten attempts, but Curry, the all-time great three-point shooter in basketball history, almost missed the championship belt after completing his final attempt. perhaps while the competition was entertaining, it was perhaps more significant because the two established a tradition that will likely return to All-Star weekends in the future.

Worst: NBA slam dunk judges

Was this year the worst dunk contest ever? It definitely felt like it. A big reason for that was the judges who somehow thought Brown was better than Jaquez or Jacob Toppin.

As noted above, even the addition of Brown, an All-Star, couldn’t save the dunk contest. After this year’s snoozefest, it’s harder than ever to justify its existence.

Best: Malik Beasley’s shoes

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Thankfully, not Timberwolves guard Beasley’s SpongeBob SquarePants-inspired shoes.

He may have scored a contest-low 20 points, but with kicks like those, Beasley deserves a round of applause.

 

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