NBA All-Star Saturday Night

All-Star Saturday night was the time for young stars to shine, whether it was the skills challenge, the 3-point shootout, or the dunk contest. Even on Friday night, some young stars proved how good they could be in the Rising Stars game. Zach LaVine took home the MVP with 30 points 7 rebounds and 4 assists as Team USA took down Team World 157-154. Also Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell, and Devin Booker all topped 20 points for Team USA. Andrew Wiggins, Kristaps Porzingis, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Mario Hezonja were the top performers for the international team, Wiggins had 29 points, Porzingis made 5 three's on his way to 30 points, Mudiay had 30 points and 10 assists, and Hezonja had 19 points 10 rebounds and 7 assists. It looks like the future of the NBA is in good hands with stars like Porzingis, Towns, Wiggins and Russell.

On Saturday night the fun really began starting with the skills contest, where big man Karl-Anthony Towns took down Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas for the skills contest trophy. The NBA switched up the format this year by having two separate brackets, one for the big men, and one for the guards. Towns emerged as the top big man, and Thomas as the top guard. In the championship round, both were basically even and it all came down to the three point shot, Towns and Thomas both missed their first couple but Towns was able to knock his down before Thomas and won it for his fellow big men. 

Then came the three point contest which wasn't as fun as previous years but was still pretty entertaining. It started off very well with five players scoring a 20 or above. The "Splash Brothers" Klay Thompson and Steph Curry both scored over 20 so they avoided the shootout, and advanced to the final round. Which meant Suns rookie Devin Booker, Rockets superstar James Harden, and Clippers sharpshooter J.J. Redick competed in an additional 30 second shootout to choose who advances to take on Thompson and Curry. Surprisingly Devin Booker beat out the other two accomplished players and had to take on Klay and Steph. I think he got maybe a score of 16 in the championship round which is pretty average, so it meant it was basically down to Splash Brother vs Splash Brother. Steph had a decent score, I think 20 or 21, but Klay easily topped that scoring a 27 and taking home the crown. 

The dunk contest was the biggest show of the night, as it should be, but hasn't been in recent years. Last year the Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine wowed viewers with an impressive show of dunking skills, he blew away the competition and it wasn't even close. This year LaVine won again but there was much more competition, mainly from the Orlando Magic's Aaron Gordon. All the dunks between Gordon and LaVine can be seen here, I would highly recommend taking five minutes out of your day to watch it. I think many people who watched the dunk contest thought that Aaron Gordon should've won, I would agree. The scorers can only go as high as 10, but some of Gordon's dunks were above 10, and so were some of LaVine's, but I just think that Aaron Gordon should've won that night. Plus if they would've given it to Gordon it would've created a Gordon vs LaVine rivalry that would go on for a long time, but that might happen anyway.