LaVine, Thompson, Towns Win NBA All-Star Saturday Events

Zach LaVine defended his Slam Dunk Contest while Klay Thompson and Karl-Anthony Towns won the Three-Point Contest and Skills Challenge in Saturday evening’s NBA All-Star events in the Canadian city.

One night after capturing the MVP award in the Rising Stars Challenge, Timberwolves’ LaVine beat out Magic’s Aaron Gordon in a thrilling final round of the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest that included two sudden-death rounds for the first time ever.

LaVine’s 99 and Gordon’s 95 combined points in the preliminary round narrowed the field of four down to two, setting up two more dunks per player to decide a champion.

The first four dunks of the final round wowed everyone in the crowd, including the judges, who handed out four-perfect scores of 50, setting up an unprecedented sudden-death round.

One extra round wasn’t enough, as both competitors recorded 50 points. Gordon’s 47 points in the second sudden-death round was not enough, as LaVine finished off the competition with a 50-point between the legs dunk from just inside the free-throw line.

“We did some things that nobody else did,” said an amazed LaVine following the contest. “Half the dunks we did were like professional dunker dunks, and it takes them four or five times to try it and make it, and we did it on the first try. It was crazy.”

With the win, LaVine joins Michael Jordan (1987, 1988), Jason Richardson (2002, 2003) and Nate Robinson (2009, 2010) as the only back-to-back dunk contest champions. LaVine joins a group of five to have won multiple times; Robinson leads the way with three titles.

In the Three-Point Contest, Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson dethroned teammate Stephen Curry in a final round that also featured Suns rookie Devin Booker.

Thompson’s 22 points and Curry’s 21 points in the first round were good enough to advance them the final round from a group of eight. Booker (20 points) prevailed in a three-way tiebreaker against with James Harden and J.J. Reddick to meet the Splash Brothers in the finals.

Booker managed 16 points in the final round while Curry surpassed him with a score of 23 with only Thompson left to shoot. Curry’s teammate sunk his final seven balls to seal the victory with 27 points.

“The fact I got to go up against Steph in the finals again. It was like deja vu last year,” said Thompson after the win.

“It was exciting, back-to-back years for Splash Brothers, it’s pretty cool,” he added.

Earlier in the day, LaVine’s teammate Karl-Anthony Towns beat out Celtics’ Isiah Thomas to capture the Taco Bell Skills Competition. (PNA/Xinhua) BNB/SSC