Obi soars, but ‘kiss’ dunk rules

Stephen Curry shot his way to another 3-point title and Domantas Sabonis made sure the Skills Challenge still belongs to the bigs.

Then Portland’s Anfernee Simons sealed his final, winning dunk with a kiss. Well, almost.

Simons showed off his leaping ability and creativity to beat the Knicks’ Obi Toppin and Indiana’s Cassius Stanley in the two-round dunk contest.

The 6-foot-3 Simons soared, almost kissing the rim, on a powerful right-handed jam to beat Toppin in the final. Simons puckered his lips as if kissing the rim, even though he was a few inches away.

Toppin also showed creativity, jumping over his father, Obadiah Toppin, and teammate Julius Randle on a dunk that earned 46 points.

In the final, Toppin took off from near the free-throw line, inspiring comparisons to Dominique Wilkins’ winning form while with the Atlanta Hawks.

Curry, the Warriors superstar, provided a dramatic preview for his seventh All-Star Game appearance when he sank his final 3-pointer to edge Utah’s Mike Conley for the long-distance title on Sunday night. Curry also won the 3-point content in 2015.

Conley had the lead with 27 points, but Curry sank his final shot from the corner for 28 points and the win.

“I could hear the temperature rise a little bit,” Curry said of the reaction from the small crowd allowed in State Farm Arena.

“It was some awesome competition,” Curry said. “I’m glad I got it done.”

After a runner-up finish to 2020 Skills Challenge winner and fellow big man Bam Adebayo of Miami, Indiana’s Sabonis returned to win the title.

The 6-foot-11 Sabonis did not miss a pass or 3-point shot in elimination wins over Julius Randle of the Knicks and Luka Doncic of Dallas in the test of passing, ball-handling and shooting ability. Doncic fell behind by missing in his first two tests of his passing accuracy.

Sabonis beat Orlando’s 7-foot Nikola Vucevic in the matchup of big men for the skills title.