Hamidou Diallo won All-Star Saturday Night

NBA All-Star Saturday Night was action-packed and we’re here to catch you up on everything you missed.

Last night, the NBA All-Star festivities really kicked off as we watched the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the MTN Dew 3-Point Contest, and the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest. With three events on the docket, there were a lot of highlights and takeaways from the action. Below, we’ll go event-by-event and breakdown what happened.

TACO BELL SKILLS CHALLENGE

This event had recently be reformatted into bigs versus guards format. This year, the bigs were compromised of Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets), Nikola Vucevic (Orlando Magic), Kyle Kuzma (Los Angeles Lakers), and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks). The guards consisted of Mike Conley Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies), De’Aaron Fox (Sacramento Kings), Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), and Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks).

In a change, the bigs and guards were paired up but instead of the bigs facing each other and then going on to face the last guard left standing; this year the two groups were mixed together. In the first round, the bigs and guards faced their respective positions, but the next round saw a big and guard face off.

The opening matchups were Jokic defeating Vucevic, Tatum beating Conley, Young defeating Fox, and Doncic beating Kuzma. Young made about a 30-foot three-pointer just before Fox’s shot went in to set up the meeting that the whole world wanted: Young versus Doncic. The two rookies have been intertwined ever since the draft-night deal made between the Hawks and Mavericks a few months ago.

As the horn sounded Young and Doncic were neck-and-neck as they weaved through the obstacles. Young’s speed — and “throw-ahead” dribble tactic — allowed him to overtake Doncic on the layup. Trailing, Doncic was at halfcourt as Young stepped in for his 3-pointer. Doncic shot it from halfcourt, but his attempt ricocheted off the backboard to the right of the rim as Young drilled his three to win the round.

Tatum easily disposed of Jokic to advance to the championship against Young. Young once again used his “throw-ahead” dribbling to get some distance between himself and Tatum and as he stepped to the three-point line, Tatum was still on the opposite end of the floor. What looked like a sure thing was suddenly turned on its head as Tatum drained a one-legged, leaning shot from a step behind halfcourt to claim the upset victory.

MTN DEW 3-POINT CONTEST

For the second straight year, the 3-point contest was the night’s best event. With the 3-point revolution changing the NBA, there are a plethora of outside shooters that can be used as participants to keep this event fresh every year.

One of those newcomers to the event was Brooklyn Nets sharpshooter Joe Harris who opened the contest with a score of 25 drilling his last eight shots including every one of his money balls from his money ball rack positioned in the right corner of the court.

To put Harris’ hot start into perspective, the next two contestants Charlotte’s own Kemba Walker and Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks combined to score 26 points with Walker pouring in 15 and Middleton adding 11.

Next up were a pair of Portland Trail Blazers, Seth Curry and Damian Lillard. The Curry family is the unofficial host of All-Star weekend in Charlotte this year and Seth was one of two Curry’s in this event. He would finish with 16, only to have his teammate Lillard one-up him with 17. Lillard was the first player to start on the right side of the floor and finish on the left.

Buddy Hield followed suit, starting on the right side of the court, and it paid dividends for the third-year wing. Like Harris, Hield got hot at the end of his round making seven of his final eight shots en route to a first-round score of 26. Some of the heat rubbed off on Danny Green who went next, but sitting on 23 with two money balls left, Green came up empty on both and that would ultimately keep him from advancing.

Dirk Nowitzki was next and even though his shot is a thing of legend, the German’s stroke was not there yesterday. He would rally to finish with 17, but an early airball set the tone for what we were going to get for the future Hall of Famer.

The second Curry, Steph, was the penultimate participant in the first round and he quickly proved why he’s always the favorite to win any type of shooting competition. Steph had streaks of six and ten straight made 3-pointers as he cruised to a high of 27 points. It was a performance that reaffirmed the greatness that is Curry as a shooter.

To finish up the round, the reigning champion Devin Booker started off cold, but found his groove on the fourth rack and put up a good run at a chance of advancing to the championship round. However, he fell just short finishing with 23 points.

In the Finals, Harris showed that the long wait had no effect on him as he scorched the nets once again improving on his first round score by one tallying 26 points. Hield was next and he didn’t have the same touch as he did in round one and finished with just 19.

Then there was Curry. The hometown kid looked well on his way to bringing home his second 3-point contest trophy casually dropping in nine of his first ten shots to begin his final go through. Yet, the hot start might’ve come back to haunt Steph as he followed that up by making five of his next ten. He had amassed 16 points heading into his final round, which featured five money balls. Curry would need to make everyone just to tie Harris’ mark. The first two shots barely moved the net on their way in. However, his third attempt rattled in-and-out sealing the victory for Harris (Curry would finish with 24).

AT&T SLAM DUNK CONTEST

The last action of the night came from John Collins (Atlanta Hawks), Miles Bridges (Charlotte Hornets), Dennis Smith Jr. (New York Knicks), and Hamidou Diallo (Oklahoma City Thunder) as they squared off to try and take home the dunk contest crown.

Smith Jr. was slighted in last year’s competition and as a North Carolina native, felt that he owed it to compete in his state. Bridges and Diallo were constants in grassroots and high school dunk competitions before entering the NBA.

To begin, Collins led things off by grabbing the side of the backboard with his left hand and remaining in the air to finish a one-handed reverse slam on the other side of the hoop. Arguably, it was one of the best dunks of the first round. He followed that up by bringing out people dressed in Tuskegee Airmen getups and a model plane similar to the one the Wright Brothers used to be the first in flight — he cleared the plane but clipped a wing on takeoff. Collins tried to muster energy from the crowd in both of his attempts, but ultimately the judges were not impressed as he tallied a 40 and 42 respectively on his first two dunks.

Bridges went third and could not finish his first dunk, a self-lob off the backboard into a between the legs dunk. Bridges seemed unable to get the right amount of lift to complete the slam as he was given a 33 for his efforts. On his next attempt, he brought out teammate Kemba Walker and donned a throwback Larry Johnson Hornets jersey. Walker tossed the ball off the side of the backboard and Bridges caught it and spun into a windmill slam to score the first perfect score of the night.

In the end, this competition was a mano a mano battle between Diallo and Smith Jr. Diallo brought Russell Westbrook onto the floor and had him pass the ball off the backboard, similarly to what Walker would do for Bridges, and Diallo slammed home a windmill with his head clearing the rim as he soared. Smith Jr.’s first dunk was also a windmill, but he tossed the ball to himself and caught it off the bounce. However, Diallo completed his in one attempt, whereas it took Smith Jr. multiple attempts before he was able to get it to go in — this would become a theme for Smith Jr. as the contest went on — and he scored a 48 compared to Smith Jr.’s 45.

For their encores, Smith Jr. brought out rapper and fellow Carolinian, J. Cole. Smith Jr. also switched into Cole’s Terry Sandford High School jersey. Cole sat in a chair and tossed the ball to Smith Jr. as he flew over and above Cole for a one-handed slam garnering him a perfect score of 50. Diallo brought out his own human prop in Shaquille O’Neal who stood a few steps away from the hoop as Diallo rose over him and put in a one-hand dunk of his own and in true Vince Carter fashion, stuck his arm in the net and hung from his elbow, as he did so he ripped open his alternate OKC jersey to reveal a Superman logo.

In the final round, Smith Jr.’s first attempts all missed and he only received a 35 from the judges. Diallo, sensing that he didn’t need to go too deep into his bag of tricks just slammed home a tomahawk dunk off a self-lob — once again placing his head level with the rim as he was in the air — to score a 43.

For his final dunk, Smith Jr. brought Stephen Curry and Dwyane Wade onto the floor with him. Curry acted as the assist man and Wade was the human prop for Smith Jr. to pogo over. After vaunting over Wade, Smith Jr. caught Curry’s pass at his hip and swung it up and into the hoop. While the dunk was spectacular, it once again took the Knicks’ guard multiple attempts before he was able to finish the move. However, the judges, conveniently, overlooked that and gave Smith Jr. another 50.

With a perfect score on the board, some pressure was back on Diallo as he would need to score higher than a 42 to take home the title. Diallo would take a page out of Smith Jr.’s book and brought out a rapper of his own to jump over — Quavo of the Atlanta rap group Migos. Quavo stood to the side of the rim and held the ball above his head and Diallo cleared him and two-hand windmilled home his final dunk of the night. A dunk that somehow only netted him a 45, but it was enough to help him claim the dunk contest trophy.