Miami's Tyler Herro wins NBA All-Star 3-point contest, Mac McClung pulls off dunk contest three-peat
Mac McClung pulled off four perfect dunks for an unprecedented NBA dunk contest three-peat.
The G League star and dunk maven put on a remarkable show at NBA All-Star Saturday night by recording perfect scores of 50 on all four of his jaw-dropping, creative dunks to become the first player to win three straight dunk contests.
Nate Robinson is the only other player to win the dunk contest three times, taking it in 2006 and then repeating in 2009-10.
McClung needed to be nearly perfect to top San Antonio's Stephon Castle in the final round after Castle followed up a 49.6 with his first dunk with a 50 on his second when he went behind his back to switch from his right hand to left before the slam.
But McClung was up to the task and now has as many dunk contest wins in his career as he does dunks in NBA games, according to Sportradar, as he has only played five games in the NBA.
For his final dunk, McClung stationed 6-foot-11 Evan Mobley on a platform in front of the basket. With Mobley holding the ball behind his head, the 6-2 McClung jumped over him, tapped the rim with the ball before slamming it home to the delight of the crowd and judges.
McClung's first dunk in the final round featured him taking one ball in midair for a windmill dunk with his right hand while slamming home another stationed near the rim with his left.
McClung also received two perfect scores in the opening round. On the first, a car was parked in the lane with a person standing through the sun roof with a ball. McClung jumped over the car, took the ball and did a reverse, behind-the-head dunk drawing gasps from the crowd and a 50.
McClung didn't disappoint on his next try despite having already clinched a spot in the final. He jumped over a person holding the ball and did a twisting, no-look dunk, getting baseball star Barry Bonds to jump out if his seat for another 50.
Castle advanced with more traditional dunks that earned him a total score of 95.
Chicago's Matas Buzelis and Milwaukee's Andre Jackson Jr. were eliminated in the first round.
3-point contest
Miami's Tyler Herro edged out Golden State's Buddy Hield to win the 3-point contest at the NBA's All-Star Saturday night in San Francisco.
Damian Lillard missed a chance to join Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only players to three-peat as 3-point champions with his score of 18 falling one point short of Herro for the final spot in the three-person final.
Herro followed up his third-place performance in the opening round to set the pace in the final with 24 points. He made both special shots worth 3 points and then three of five from the money ball rack worth two points each to end it.
Hield followed up a scintillating opening round with 31 points but missed his first six shots in the final. But he got going after that to the delight of his home crowd and had a chance to pull out the win by making six straight money balls to end it.
He made four in a row before one shot rimmed out. He made the final shot to end with 23 points.
"I got lucky," Herro said. "I thought Buddy was going to run off the last five. It was a great competition."
Darius Garland came in third with 19 points in the final round.
Hield put up the best score of the opening round with 31 points — making both of the special balls worth 3 points — to the delight of his cheering Warriors teammates Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Hield tied Curry for the most points ever in a round.
Garland made four of five shots from the 2-point money ball rack to come in second in the opening round with 24 points and Herro had 19.
Brooklyn's Cam Johnson, Norman Powell of the Clippers, Detroit's Cade Cunningam and New York's Jalen Brunson also all failed to advance out of the first round.
Skills Challenge
Cleveland duo Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell teamed up to knock off hometown heroes Moses Moody and Green to win the NBA's Skills Challenge crown.
The final game after San Antonio's duo of Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul was disqualified for trying to cheat the rules in the obstacle course that features players speeding through stations with various passing and shooting drills.
The Cavaliers went first in the final round and raced through the course in 1 minute, 0.3 seconds as Mobley and Mitchell easily made almost all of their shots from three spots on the floor on their first attempt.
Moody made it through the first round easily for the Golden State's duo but Green missed all three chest passes and struggled to make his shots. He couldn't even make it to the final two stations before time ran out to match the time set by Cleveland.
Wembanyama and Paul went first in the opening round and were loudly booed for not even trying to make real attempts on their shots, just tossing the balls off the racks. They were ultimately disqualified.
"We tried something that we thought could win," Paul said. "To see if we had the best time, so ... it was fun."
The rookie team of Atlanta's Zaccharie Risacher and Washington's Alex Sarr were also eliminated in the first round with their time of 1:20.6 ending up 1.2 seconds behind the Cavaliers.
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