On a day that also saw the East and West NBA all-stars practise and the East beat the West 128-124 in the D-League all-star game, the spotlight switched to individual skills Saturday night. But fortunately for the Golden State Warriors superstar, the player who bested him in Toronto just happens to be his teammate.
Advertisement
Thompson won it in dramatic fashion, scoring 27 points as the last shooter in the finals to defeat Curry and tie the record Curry set a year ago in NY.
“We’ll probably rest guys down the stretch”, Thompson said Friday on ESPN Radio (via ESPN.com’s Marc Stein), “but we’re so deep of a team that we should have a chance to win every night”.
In what many believe is the greatest slam dunk contest in a long time, LaVine outshone the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon to again be declared as the slam dunk king.
All-Star forward Bosh will spend “the next few days” reviewing options and no determination will be made about his playing status until he goes through more tests and evaluation, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. It’s certainly not a given at this point, but the way the Warriors have played so far makes it feel increasingly likely that they’ll finish the season with the winningest record in National Basketball Association history. Booker won the shootout to move to the three-man title round and quickly was eliminated by Curry before Thompson nailed his final eight shots to win the trophy.
“It was like déjà vu previous year”, said Thompson, who lost to Curry in the championship round in 2015.
After the second ball of the final rack splashed the net, Stephen Curry raised his right arm in the air, three fingers up as he started walking to the middle of the court.
Thompson is averaging 21.3 points per game while nailing 42 percent of his 3-pointers this season.
“I would have taken him home if I would have won”, Curry said.
State Farm All-Star Saturday Night featured the Taco Bells Skill Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest and Verizon Slam Dunk Contest.
“I think the world really appreciates the way all of us shoot the ball”, Thompson said.
Thomas had the early lead in the skills challenge but Towns caught him on their second trip down the court. “He makes me that much better”.
Advertisement
“What I mean by that is that when I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids and the first thing they do is they run to the three-point line”.
