Warriors’ Thompson wins 3-point contest.
TORONTO — Klay Thompson’s father said he couldn’t come home if the Warriors’ guard didn’t beat backcourt mate Stephen Curry in Saturday’s three-point competition.
“I would have taken him home if I would have won,” Curry said. “We would have figured that out. That wasn’t a worry. I tried my hardest.”
Thompson had the high score in both rounds, setting the pace with 22 points in the initial field of eight. He claimed the title with a 27 in the threeman final, which probably ended Curry’s run of participation in the showcase event.
“Probably not,” Curry said, when asked if he’ll compete next year in his hometown Charlotte. “That might be my last run. Thanks, Klay, for knocking me off my perch, and
I can kind of relax a little bit.”
Curry made eight in a row to start the championship round and connected on 6 of 9 twopoint moneyballs for a score of 23. But Thompson made 8 of 9 moneyballs to keep Curry from joining a list of multiple winners that includes Craig Hodges, Mark Price, Jeff Hornacek, Peja Stojakovic and Jason Kapono. Suns rookie Devin Booker (16) was third.
“Just the fact I got to go up against Steph in the finals again, it was like deja vu from last year,” Thompson said. “I’m not going to lie, I got nervous when he hit his first eight, and I didn’t think he was going to miss.
“But it is exciting, just coming back to Oakland (with the title), you know. Back-to-back years for the ‘Splash Brothers’ is pretty cool.”
Dunk contest: After Zach LaVine and Mitty High alum Aaron Gordon combined for a dunk-contest-record six straight perfect 50s, LaVine outlasted Gordon to become the sixth multiple-time winner and the first since Nate Robinson won his second and third titles in 2009-10.
On LaVine’s winning dunk, he took off from near the freethrow line, transferred the ball between his legs and then threw down a one-hander. Jason Richardson, Harold Miner, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins also won twice.
Skills challenge: Warriors forward Draymond Green proved prophetic when he predicted that a big man would win the skills challenge, a competition usually dominated by guards.
“Whoever comes out of our (big man) side is going to win the whole thing,” Green said before losing in the first round to Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns was swarmed by Green, Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins and New Orleans’ Anthony Davis after the big man beat Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas in the championship round.
Comic stunt: Green didn’t walk away empty-handed, receiving a trophy for beating comic Kevin Hart 12-11 in a three-point competition. The trophy was about 5-foot-3, about an inch shorter than Hart, who received a purple runner-up ribbon.