Thompson dethrones Curry in 3-point contest

Ultimately, LaVine won with a final between-the-legs windup from just inside the free throw line.

It was revealed that the player was Nash on Drummond’s second dunk.

The dunk contest was actually slow to build with Will Barton of the Denver Nuggets and Andre Drummond eliminated.

Some of the dunks were so good, they might be in the conversation of the best ever dunks in the Dunk Contest.

LaVine pulled out a one-handed windmill dunk, taking to the air at the free-throw line for a flawless score of his own. Aaron Gordon had 45 points, but it was LaVine who stole the show with a ideal 50 on his very first try.

Barton failed to complete his second dunk, which was a bounce to himself where he tried to reverse the ball again.

The skills challenge featured four big men against four guards, and a big man prevailed – Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves rookie, who outdueled Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas in the final. He is just the fourth repeat victor of the Dunk Contest in history. The judges gave him a 47-point score to set LaVine up for the win.

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. Gordon did close to the same when he put away a pair of incredible dunks with the help of the Magic mascot (one of which saw him put the ball under both legs), but his final dunk apparently wasn’t up to snuff.

Stuff the Magic Dragon then came out on a hoverboard, who Gordon cleared with apparent ease.

The final event of the evening, and normally the most exciting, is the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest.

“We were kind of mind-boggled a couple times because we got 49s and they were 50s”, LaVine said. It was the flawless mix of strength, athleticism, and creativity, the kind of thing that everyone wants to see out of the Dunk Contest. Curry scored 23 points and Booker finished with 16 in the final round.