All-Star weekend

All-Star weekend was probably one of the livest in the last couple of years from the shooting stars contest, skills challenge, to the stacked field in the 3 point shooting contest, dunk contest, and the all-star game. Let's not forget it was in one of the livest cities in the country. As well as the all-star events and all-star game being played in the historic Madison Square Garden. Everyone always brings their A game when it comes to Madison Square Garden. The fans that were attendance sure got their money worth this weekend.

For the shooting stars contest Team Bosh wins their 3rd straight shooting stars event.  Team Bosh got a challenge first round from Team Westbrook with Team Bosh finishing in 30.8 seconds and Team Westbrook finishing in 35.2. But the final round was a different story with Team Bosh finishing in 57.6 seconds and Team Westbrook finishing in a minute and 30 seconds. Team Bosh consisted of Chris Bosh, Dominque Wilkins, and Swin Cash. Team Westbrook consisted of Russell Westbrook, Penny Hardaway, and Tamika Catchings.

In the skills contest the fill in for John Wall who was Patrick Beverley shocked everyone and won the contest somehow. This year they had two players go at a time instead of one of time. I thought that was a good idea because it made it more competitive. After struggling with the chest pass for both rounds Beverley persistence gave him a chance to win. In the final round against Brandon Knight Patrick was behind yet again due to chest passes but somehow was able to win after Knight missed the three point jumper twice which gave Beverley time to come down and hit the three on his first attempt to win his first skills challenge and also win a kid a college scholarship.

The three point contest was expected to be the livest event of All-Star weekend. With a stacked field that consist of Kyle Korver, Wesley Matthews, JJ Redick, James Harden, Marco Bellinelli, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and Steph Curry. With Korver headline the 3 point shootout competition because of his 52 % shooting percentage from the 3 point line. The Splash brothers and Uncle Drew stole the show. With Uncle Drew aka Kyrie Irving putting up 23 in the first round he cooled down in the second round just scoring 17. But Steph Curry did the exact opposite he heated up and scored 27 in the final round that not even Klay Thompson could beat that night. This lead to Steph Curry winning his first 3 point shootout contest.

Then comes the dunk contest which everybody thought would be the weakest part of All-Star weekend as it has been for the last several years. But this weekend Zach Lavine and Victor Oladipo made it the best event of All-Star weekend outside of the All-Star game.  Victor Oladipo started the dunk contest off with a 540 dunk to get the crowd into early and received a perfect score of 50. But Zach Lavine answered back with the space jam dunk between the legs dunk his head almost hit the rim which also gave him a 50. Then Lavine second dunk in the first round he put the ball behind the back and switched hands and dunked it which gave him another 50. In the final round Zach Lavine beat Victor Oladipo 94-72 to become the second youngest player to ever win the dunk contest outside of Kobe Bryant

The final event to cap All-Star weekend was the actual All-Star game. Everyone expected Carmelo Anthony to steal the show considering it was his court but he didn't he shot 6 for 20 and only scored 14. Instead LeBron James and Russell Westbrook took over the show. The East was getting killed in the 1st half until Korver came in and knocked down several threes that brought the East back within striking distance. At the end of the first half it was 83-82 West was up by 1. But what was even more exciting then seeing the West come back was Russell Westbrook scoring 27 points in a 11 minutes. But in the end the East couldn't beat the West even with LeBron James scoring 30 points  along with 7 assists and 5 rebounds. The final score was 163-158 in favor of the West. Russell Westbrook finished with 41 points 1 point shy of Wilt Chamberlain All-Star record for most points in a game. Also Chris Paul had a silent 12 points, 15 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals.