Antetokounmpo brothers highlight All-Star Saturday
Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo is teaming up with his brothers once again on All-Star Saturday. Portland's Damian Lillard is taking a third shot at the 3-point title, Indiana's Buddy Hield will aim to win that one again and Philadelphia's Mac McClung now can be a slam-dunk champion at the NBA and high school levels.
The NBA released the full list of participants for All-Star Saturday's events in Salt Lake City — the Skills Competition, the 3-point contest and the dunk contest. It'll be a particularly busy weekend for 11 players who are now slotted to be in multiple events during the three days of action in Utah.
3-POINT CONTEST >> Hield, the 2020 winner, is back to try to become the eighth player with multiple 3-point crowns. He'll face his Indiana teammate Tyrese Haliburton, the Portland duo of Lillard and Anfernee Simons, Miami's Tyler Herro, Sacramento's Kevin Huerter, Utah's Lauri Markkanen and Boston's Jayson Tatum.
SKILLS CHALLENGE >> Antetokounmpo is an All-Star captain, and will choose a team to oppose the squad that will be picked Sunday night by fellow captain LeBron James.
But first, he'll be teaming up with his brothers — Thanasis and Alex — in the Skills Challenge, just as he did in last year's event at Cleveland. They'll face two other teams, one from the host Utah Jazz and the other composed of three top picks in last year's draft.
The Jazz will be represented by Jordan Clarkson, Walker Kessler and Collin Sexton. And Team Rooks is composed of No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero of Orlando, No. 3 pick Jabari Smith Jr. of Houston and No. 5 pick Jaden Ivey of Detroit.
It's a four-round competition, the first three involve shooting, passing and a relay. The top two teams after those events will then shoot half-court shots to decide a winner.
DUNK CONTEST >> McClung won an All-American high school dunk contest in 2018, and will be joined in the NBA dunk field by Houston's Kenyon Martin Jr., New Orleans' Trey Murphy
III and New York's Jericho Sims. BUCKS BEAT CELTICS IN OT >>
Jrue Holiday scored a season-high 40 points and made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 25.2 seconds left in overtime as the host Milwaukee Bucks edged the shorthanded Boston Celtics 131-125 for their 11th consecutive victory. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 36 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists. Boston was playing without Jayson Tatum (non-COVID illness), Jaylen Brown (facial fracture), Marcus Smart (sprained right ankle) and Al Horford (knee). Derrick White led the Celtics with 27 points and 12 assists. RAPTORS 123, MAGIC 113 >> Jakob Poeltl scored 30 points, Pascal Siakam had 26 and host Toronto beat Orlando for its fifth win in six games. Scottie Barnes added 17 points for the Raptors. Wendell Carter Jr. scored 26 points and Jalen Suggs had 24 off the bench for the Magic.