How Damian Lillard won the NBA 3-Point Contest over Buddy Hield, Tyrese Haliburton

After a slumber of a skills competition, the NBA All-Star 3-Point Contest had some very entertaining moments but had some duds moments as well.

The first round of the 2023 3-Point Contest at NBA All-Star Weekend started out with Jayson Tatum getting to 20 points on a lot of wing shots. He struggled on his first set of shots which were his money racks, but he was able to keep him slightly alive for the second round.

Tyrese Haliburton went out second and went with straight fire, lighting up the basket with 30 points. He made both Starry balls which were huge but he overall had a good first round.

Buddy Hield struggled in the beginning but was able to get catch fire in the back half to make him get to the second round a possibility with 23 points.

Tyler Herro struggled in the first rack and never recovered to catch then Tatum even though he caught fire in the middle spots.

NBA 3-Point Contest: Second half of first round was a snooze fest

The second half of the first round was a bit snoring fest. Julius Randle who was an injury replacement didn’t do too well and was practically out after the second rack. Shockingly Kevin Hurter struggled from the field and did worse than Randle did. He missed 9 out of 10 of his first shots of the competition.

Lauri Markenken made it close and seemed like it was gonna be making it over Tatum but he struggled on his back half which allowed Tatum to be tied with third place and a ticket for the second round.

Damian Lillard cleaned through both of these players and it was clear by the second wing shots that he was going to the second round.

NBA 3-Point Contest: How did the second round go?

Haliburton, Lillard, and Hield advanced to the finals of the three-point shooting competition. Hield went up first and had a solid first second round with an around good run, doing well on the money rack to have a really good shot at winning the whole thing.

Lillard went insane in his second round. It seemed like Hield would survive against Lillard after he did poorly on his second corner rack but Dame went insane on his last rack to eliminate Hield. Haliburton was the final competitor in this contest, and he struggled from his first wing and corner, gifting the three-point championship to Lillard, who was wearing his Weber State jersey in the competition.

NBA 3-Point Contest: How does Lillard’s win stack up in the history books?

In terms of three-point competitions, this was not the greatest one of all time. Still, the second round had entertaining moments. Watching Hield and Lillard go off against each other was very entertaining to watch.

This was Lillard’s third time in the three-point competition and with this win, it seems like he will retire from the competition.  This competition wasn’t the greatest one to ever watch, but after seeing the boring skills competition this was definitely a good cleanser.