PORZINGIS GOT SKILLS!
Knick wins Skills Challenge at All-Star Weekend:
NEW ORLEANS — They call him Unicorn for a reason. Exhibiting his unique abilities at 7-foot-3, Kristaps Porzingis dominated the NBA Skills Challenge and won the title Saturday with a flawless final against Utah’s Gordon Hayward. The 21-year-old Knick then took home the first trophy of his NBA career and wrapped up a successful All-Star weekend. “It does feel good to win no matter what,” Porzingis said. It’s been a rough couple months for the reeling Knicks and Porzingis, whose production has tapered off after dealing with Achilles soreness. But on Saturday, he toppled DeMarcus Cousins, Nikola Jokic and Hayward in the Skills Challenge — which combines dribbling, passing and shooting in a race setting.
He became the first Knick to win the 15-year-old Skills Challenge, and the second straight big man after Karl-Anthony Towns took the title last year. Before that, the winners were either all point guards or Dwyane Wade.
“It’s a good feeling that I’m able to showcase my skill with my size and show to the kids that you’re capable of doing that even if you’re tall and lanky like me,” said Porzingis, who also was part of the winning team in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday. “I think a lot of kids now growing up will improve those perimeter skills just seeing guys like — I don’t want to mention myself, but big guys with perimeter skills that can do it.”
Porzingis completed the pass through the hoop on the first try of all three of his runs. On the final run against Hayward, he also buried the 3-pointer on his first attempt.
“Before we started doing it, while I was doing the walk through, I knew that the pass and the shot on the
NEW ORLEANS — Glenn Robinson III of the Indiana Pacers is the All-Star slam dunk champion.
Robinson beat Derrick Jones Jr. of the Phoenix Suns in the final round of the dunk competition Saturday night at the Smoothie King Center.
Robinson clinched the win with a perfect 50 on the final dunk of the night — going over three people for a reverse dunk and nearly touching his head on the rim in the process. Robinson and Jones embraced when it was over, and Robinson went over to shake hands with judges. “This is just the beginning for me,” Robinson said. Robinson started with a dunk where he leaped over Indiana teammate Paul George, grabbing the ball from the All-Star before his slam that merited 44 points. Jones failed to go over three people — or rather, one man, one Suns dancer and Suns’ mascot The Gorilla — and get a dunk down in his first attempt of the finals, yet got 37 points.
His second attempt, an off-the-bounce, betweenthe-legs slam, was a perfect 50. DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers and Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic were eliminated in the first round.
Gordon finished second to Minnesota’s Zach LaVine in last year’s contest. three-pointer was the most important parts of that,” Porzingis said. “And I was able to make the pass on the first try all three times. And then in the final, that last shot just went in. So just a little bit of luck.”
GORDON TRIPS UP KLAY
Houston’s Eric Gordon dethroned Golden State splash brother Klay Thompson as the NBA All-Star 3-point contest champion. And he did it in New Orleans, where he played the previous five seasons before leaving last summer in free agency.
Gordon’s score of 21 in a finalround tie-breaker defeated Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving, the 2013 winner who had 18.
The pair had each finished with a score of 20 in the final round, meaning they each had to shoot 25 more balls to decide it.
Thompson was stunningly eliminated in the first round, missing a final shot from the corner that could have put him through ahead of Walker. —AP