INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — G League champion Mac McClung won his second straight dunk contest by snatching the ball out of the hands of Shaquille O’Neal, wearing the contestant’s high school jersey, and jumping on him to get five perfect scores on your last attempt.
McClung finished with 98.8 points on his last two dunks, one point ahead of Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown.
“Shaq was cool putting on that high school jersey, man, I was excited for him to do that,” McClung said.
Unlike some of his previous attempts, McClung did this dunk on his first attempt and was rewarded handsomely by all five judges.
McClung picked O’Neal out of the crowd, asked him to stand up for the dunk of the night.
“It was like, ‘OK, you really have to bring something, and I think they want us to do it on the first try, which I completely understand,’” McClung said. “So I knew it was time to secure the final.”
McClung became the sixth player to win the contest twice and the first to do so in consecutive seasons since Zach LaVine in 2015 and 2016.
Will Mac go for an unprecedented third consecutive title next year?
“Don’t know. We will think about it. “I’m still not sure,” McClung said.
The only player with three wins in the contest is Nate Robinson, but they were not consecutive.
He needed a high score after Brown averaged 49.2 on his final dunk over another person with a sequined glove on his left hand.
McClung jumped over two people on his first dunk of the final round. Brown paid tribute to the late Terrence Clark, a Massachusetts high school star who died in a car accident at age 19 in April 2021
Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard defended his 3-point contest title by finishing with 26 points in the final round Saturday night.
Lillard, who won with Portland last season, became the eighth player to win at least two 3-point crowns and the first since Jason Kapono in 2007 and 2008 to do so in consecutive years.
Four players — Lillard, Atlanta’s Tre Young, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Minnesota’s Karl Anthony-Towns — finished tied for three spots in the final round. Haliburton was out in the tiebreaker with 12 points.
Then, in the finals, Young and Towns each scored 24 points, giving Lillard a chance to win it with a string of shots that gave him the title.
In the skills challenge, Tyrese Haliburton hit the tiebreaking shot from midcourt with 20.5 seconds left to give Team Pacers the crown over Team All-Stars.
Haliburton, a two-time All-Star, teamed with Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin to win the first two competitions of the night (team relays and passing) at Lucas Oil Stadium, just steps from the arena where he usually plays.
The All-Stars Team won the shot contest after a score tied at 200, forcing a tiebreaker.
It took the All-Stars Team 58.8 seconds to make their first shot from half court. Haliburton needed just 38.3 seconds to seal the victory, which continued Indiana’s dominance of All-Star weekend.
Mathurin was selected Most Valuable Player of the Rising Star Game, played on Friday, after leading Team Jalen to beat Team Detlef, which faced two former Pacers players now as coaches: Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf.
There was another three-point contest, which marked a milestone.
Stephen Curry got hot and it was barely enough to defeat Sabrina Ionescu. She made it by three points, as might have been expected.
The Golden State star and top three-point scorer in NBA history beat Ionescu 29-26 in the Steph vs. Sabrina It was the first time a man faced off against a woman in the festivities before Sunday’s main game.
2024-02-18 06:32:00
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