By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Damian Lillard was a last second addition to the All-Star 3-point shootout and made his presence count.
While he hasn’t played yet in the season with the Blazers due to an Achilles tear, he won the competition with a final-round score of 29, edging Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel to win for the third time in the past four years.
“I came in confident, I’m fresh,” Lillard said after the win. “I don’t have to go out there and play 40 minutes, 35 minutes. I think just having this year to be away, my mind and body [are] just fresh. So, I came out there excited to do it.”
Lillard joined Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only other three-time winners of the event, which started in 1986.
The 3-point contest was followed by the Shooting Stars competition, which was won by the New York Knicks team that featured All-Star Jalen Brunson, his father and Knicks assistant coach, Rick Brunson, New York big man Karl-Anthony Towns, and Knicks alumnus Allan Houston.
Keshad Johnson of the Miami Heat won a pretty underwhelming dunk contest.
Johnson, a 6-6, second-year forward, beat San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant in the final round.
Bryant scored the only perfect 50 dunk of the night by throwing an alley-oop off the court to himself and finishing the slam by putting the ball through his legs, but couldn’t connect on his final round dunk.
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