Bucks’ Middleton, Connaughton compete in skills, dunk contest

CHICAGO — Aaron Gordon lost another epic dunk contest. And it was by a couple of inches — namely, the top of Tacko Fall’s head.

Derrick Jones Jr. finally got his long-awaited dunk contest title as an exclamation point to an epic All-Star Saturday Night, both for him and the Miami Heat. Jones Jr. and Gordon needed two extra dunks apiece in the final round before deciding a winner, Jones Jr. prevailing 48-47 in the one that determined who left with the trophy.

Milwaukee’s Pat Connaughton scored a perfect 50 on his second dunk but his overall score was one point shy of Jones’ and he was left out of the final.

The Bucks’ Khris Middleton advanced past the first round in the Skills Challenge but lost to Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, who advanced to the final.

Miami’s Bam Adebayo won the skills title as well, and Sacramento’s Buddy Hield took the 3-point crown. Their wins were absolute, there was no ambiguity: the ball going in told the tale. The dunk contest — much like the one between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in Chicago 32 years earlier — came down to the judges’ call.

Dwyane Wade was one of the judges and he said he wanted to have co-dunk contest winners but that the judges were told they had to pick a winner.

And when Gordon, the Orlando forward who fell to Zach LaVine in an unforgettable dunk contest at Toronto four years ago, picked the 7-foot-5 Fall to come out for his last dunk — Fall played college basketball in Orlando at UCF — it was the ultimate risk-reward moment.

Gordon, who wanted to jump over the slightly shorter-than-Fall Shaquille O’Neal but got his invitation declined, decided to bring Fall out and needed a 49 to win. But he didn’t totally clear Fall, and the judges gave him a 47. Just like that, Jones was the champion.

“Tallest dude in the gym.” Gordon said. “Jumping over somebody 7-5 and dunking it, it’s no easy feat. What’d I get, a 47? Come on, man. What are we doing?”

The first round was full of props: Jones Jr. — celebrating his 23rd birthday — had a birthday cake and Adebayo on the court for his first dunk, Gordon went over Chicago native Chance The Rapper for a slam, Milwaukee’s Connaughton leaped over Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo and kissed the ball off the glass before his second dunk, and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Dwight Howard brought back his Superman dunk from years ago as well.

Jones Jr. and Gordon emerged as the two finalists. Gordon was perfect on every dunk until his last one, going over Chance The Rapper a few times as well to the delight of the Chicago crowd.

But in the end, Jones proved prophetic.

“I said I would do it,” Jones said.

Adebayo drew 2018 skills champion Spencer Dinwiddie of Brooklyn in the first round, having no problem with the accurate pass into a tight window, layup and 3-pointer that, to win, need to be made before an opponent completes the same course. Same thing in the second round, Adebayo finished off Toronto’s Pascal Siakam without a miss once again to earn his spot in the final.

“I told Spencer I’m going to be the champion,” Adebayo said. “We were walking in, and I told Spencer I was going to be a champion.”

It came down to big men: Adebayo against Sabonis. It took three tries for Adebayo to make his 3-pointer to win, and he still wound up beating Sabonis to the final make. Sabonis felt he rushed his second shot, and that gave Adebayo a leg up.

Neither Sabonis nor Adebayo was surprised that a pair of bigs wound up dueling for the skills title.
“It’s just showing how the game is changing and how big men and power forwards are basically bringing up the ball, passing the ball,” Sabonis said.

Adebayo dedicated the win to his mother — she’ll be getting the trophy as well — and said he was particularly honored to compete with a patch on that paid tribute to Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and the other seven victims of the helicopter crash that took their lives in Southern California on Jan. 26.

All competitors Saturday wore a patch with the numbers 2 and 24 — for Gianna and Kobe — surrounded by nine stars, signifying nine victims.

“When I was in high school, I said if I get to the NBA, I want to meet Kobe,” Adebayo said. “I felt like this (was) my All-Star to do it. I feel like he’s been more of an impact now than he was back then. Not saying that him living didn’t do anything for me, but it just means more now that I know I can never meet him. I feel like he knows who I am now. So just keep trying to make him proud.”

Adebayo won his trophy with a 3-pointer on the final shot, so perhaps it was fitting that Hield won his in the same manner.

The 3-point contest came down to Hield, Booker and Washington’s Davis Bertans after five others — including defending champion Joe Harris — were knocked out in the first round. Bertans went first in the final round, scoring 22. Booker went next, scoring 26.

And that left Hield, who made his last six shots of the opening round and needed to get hot again late in the final.
No problem.

His “money ball” rack — the one where every shot was worth two points — was the final of his five full racks, and he got to that corner with 19 points. That meant he had to go 4 for 5 on the last rack to catch Booker.

First one, make. Second one, make. Third one, make.

Hield then missed the fourth shot before letting the final one fly — dancing for joy when it dropped through the net, giving him a walkoff victory.

“As a shooter, this is on your bucket list,” Hield said. “You have to come in and you want to win a 3-point shootout. With a stacked field like that, it makes it even better. Pressure is on, and you’ve got to show up.”
That was the theme of the night, all the way to the end.