Category: NBA All-Star blog

NBA All-Star blog

Jason Kapono wins 3-point Shootout

By InsideHoops.com

It’s 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend, Saturday night, and we’re up to the NBA Three-Point Shootout. Jason Kapono won it last year.

Richard Hamilton is up first. He hit 2 shots on the first rack, 4 on the second, 3 on the third, 3 on the fourth, and 4 on the last — but two of his last-rack shots were discounted by the refs because Rip stepped on the line. Hamilton actually shot well but did not hit a single money-ball except on the very last rack, but that shot was one of the shots discounted by the refs. Rip’s final score wound up being 14.

Daniel Gibson went second, and started from the nontraditional left side. He struggled early, but then picked things up. Gibson hit 1 shot on the first rack, 4 shots (including a money-ball) on the second rack, 3 shots (including a money-ball) on the third rack, 3 shots on the fourth rack, and 3 shots (including a money-ball) on the last rack, getting 17.

Steve Nash went third, also starting from the left side, and was awful from start to finish, getting a pathetic 9 points. They should have let InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner shoot.

Dirk Nowitzki was next, continuing the new tradition of starting from the left side. He shot a very long, slow, high-arc release which wasn’t very fitting for this competition. After a slow start he picked it up, and on the five racks he hit 1, 5, 3, 3 and 3 shots, with money-balls on the second and fourth racks. Dirk finished with 17.

Next is Peja Stojakovic, starting from the right side. He hit just one shot in the first rack and his first money-ball attempt hit the side of the backboard. His struggles continued until he got to the top of the key, which he rocked. And then stepped up on the last rack. In the five shooting areas Peja hit 1, 2, 3, 3 and 4 shots, with money-balls on the third and fourth racks. He got 15 points.

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Last up is defending three-point champion Jason Kapono, who starts from the left side. He is shooting very quickly and did well all-around, though missing the money-balls, but rocked in the end when he needed it. From the five racks he hit 2, 4, 3, 4 and 5 shots, with money-balls on the second and fifth racks. Kapono finished with an awesome 20 points.

Reaching the second and final round is Kapono, Dirk and Gibson.

Starting first is Gibson, shooting very quickly, picking up steam halfway through and again at the end. The money-ball saved him. In the five racks he hit 2, 2, 3, 2 and 4 shots with money-balls on the first, third, fourth and fifth racks, finishing with 17.

Nowitzki is up second, high arc and all, and did decently but struggled with money-balls. In the five racks he hit 1, 4, 2, 3 and 3 shots, with just one money-ball, the very last shot. He got 14 points.

Kapono must beat 17 to win it. And unleashed one of the best performances ever, hitting every single money-ball, and on the five racks making 3, 5, 4, 4 and 4 shots, finishing with an awesome 24 points.

As always, this was a fun competition.

Kapono repeats as the three-point shootout champion.

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Deron Williams wins Skills Challenge

It’s 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend and the Saturday Night events are on. Now up is the Skills Challenge competition.

Deron Williams went first, missing a straight-in pass and one of the top-of-the-key shots, finishing in 31.2 seconds.

Jason Kidd went second and was flawless until shooting the top of the key shot, which he missed five times (after five misses a player can stop shooting and continue with the course), finishing in 39.7 seconds.

Chris Paul was up net, missing a bounce pass, but otherwise running the whole course perfectly, flying in at 29.0 seconds.

Last up was Dwyane Wade, who fumbled the ball during the obstacle-dribble in the beginning and had to go chase it, then missed three from the top of the key and quickly fired the next two up just to get through it, blew some passes, and slowly dribbled to the end, but then missed the layup, and missed the follow, for a disgustingly awful performance of 53.9 seconds.

CP3 and D-Will advance to the second and final round.

In the final round, D-Will went first. He dunked the first shot, ran the dribbling, hit the straight-in pass, and the bounce pass, swished the top-of-the-key jumper, hit the next straight-on pass, and ended it with a dunk, finishing with in terrific 25.5 seconds time, setting the all-time record best time for this event.

Paul is up and has to be virtually perfect for a shot at winning. He hit the first layup, dribbled the obstacles, missed the first straight-on pass, hit the bounce pass, missed once from the top of the key, hit the last straight-on pass, and hit the layup, getting 31.2 seconds — a respectable time but D-Will wins it with a brilliant performance.

San Antonio wins Shooting Stars competition

Team San Antonio, with Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Becky Hammon, won the 2008 NBA All-Star Weekend Shooting Stars competition Saturday night. After the team got through the regular shots, Tim Duncan quickly hit the half-court shot.

The other team in the Shooting Stars second and final round was Team Chicago, with Chris Duhon, Candice Dupree and B.J. Armstrong. They did well with the regular shots and easily could have won, but took forever to hit the half-court shot, losing it for that reason.

Team Los Angeles wasn’t too hot. And Team Phoenix had potential, but Eddie Johnson struggled.

Wade speaks on Shaq trade

Here’s Dwyane Wade at All-Star weekend:

Q: Talking about the trade … what does Shaq bring to the Suns and Marion bring to your team?

Dwyane Wade: Well, first of all, Shaq … is really made for the Playoffs — to slow the pace down for them and really give them a halfcourt dominance. He’s really going to make Amare [Stoudemire] and them tougher. They’re really going to be able to compete with guys on a different level than they have been in previous years. But what Shawn [Marion] brings to us is excitement and consistency. He’s a guy that’s going to give you what he gives you every night and he’s a guy that, with myself, is [part of] the rebuilding tools … for the future. Two totally different directions: Phoenix is looking to win now and we’re looking to rebuild now.

The interview is short and the rest is about All-Star stuff, but read more here.

Doc Rivers: No curfew for East All-Stars

Here’s the head coach of the Boston Celtics and the 2008 East All-Star team, Doc Rivers

Q: Do the players have a curfew on Saturday night?

Doc Rivers: No, I’m going to tell them all to go out and I’m going to play all the guys, but my guys as many minutes as possible. That’s the key for me.

Q: Would you be in favor of a change like in baseball where the winner of the All-Star Game gets home court in The Finals?

Doc Rivers: No, I don’t like that. There’s some guys who may be in the game whose team has no chance of being in the playoffs, so what vested interest would they have in the game? I would, and I certainly do. I like the way it is. I’ve always said that I would love winner take all. I don’t know what the pot is — the winners get a certain amount of money and the losers get a certain amount of money. I think they should make it one, and the winners take all. I think that would change it a little bit. Other than that, I like it exactly the way it is.

Q: Are you worried about your team peaking too soon?

Doc Rivers: Well, no, because we have so much room for improvement. I know, at least I hope, that because we’ve not been together but five months – it’s not like we’ve been a team that’s been together for a long time. We understand that we’re playing catch-up to all the teams. We don’t go by record. We don’t. We look at Detroit, Cleveland, San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix, all those teams have gone through everything that we’ve not gone through. So we understand that we can’t relax and that we have a lot of room to improve.

Dwight Howard speaks

Here’s Dwight Howard talking to the media at All-Star weekend. He’s one of the four dunkers in the upcoming Slam Dunk contest.

Q: Have you talked to the other contestants about their dunks at all?

Dwight Howard: Well you know, we talked, but nobody is going to tell their dunk secrets to anybody. It’s just going to be a lot of fun, I just can’t wait.

Q: Is it safe to say your dunks will be things we’ve never seen before?

Dwight Howard: I think about three of my dunks have never been seen before. Well, all of them have never been seen, so hopefully I get a chance to do it. If not, I do have two of my dunks on Youtube.

Q: What’s your favorite Bourbon Street memory here in New Orleans?

Dwight Howard: Ah, man, I haven’t really been out on Bourbon Street, but I did go to a restaurant and they had some fried barbeque oysters and they’re awesome.

Q: Are things easier for the Magic now with trades sending players to the West?

Dwight Howard: No, we still got a tough road in front of us. We’re fighting to be a great team and some teams that we look up to as far as the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics, you know, they’re great teams and we want to be right there in the mix. I think people always forget about the Orlando Magic when they talk about good teams in the East, so we really want to build on becoming a good team.

Q: Do you think there will be years ahead of Yao versus you, two true centers?

Dwight Howard: Oh yeah, I think there will always be that between me and Yao. Like everyone says, big men are like dinosaurs, they’re becoming extinct. Me and Yao and Andrew Bynum, Amare Stoudemire, Tim Duncan, there’s not a lot of us. We’re trying to keep centers going and let everyone know you still need a good center to win basketball games.

Report: Kobe wants out of All-Star

The New York Post (Marc Berman) reports: Kobe Bryant has said he doesn’t want to play in tomorrow’s All-Star Game because of a pinkie injury, but likely will be forced to make a cameo, according to a league source. An NBA rule says a player can’t skip the All-Star Game if he plays the game before and the game after. That would subject him to a suspension. “I’m not going to play,” Bryant said. “The important thing is for me to get as healthy as I possibly can within the rules of the NBA and get ready for Tuesday.” The Lakers and league officials have been in negotiations for two days to figure out how to handle this. Having Bryant miss the game entirely would be a massive blow to the event, as he’s the leading candidate for MVP this season and the league’s most electrifying and best-known player.

Kobe interview about his injury

Friday afternoon Kobe Bryant talked about his injury. Here’s a bit of what he said:

Q: Kobe, can you tell us how your finger is and your injury?

Kobe Bryant: It’s sore. Just trying to rest it. Doing what we can to try to get it as healthy as we can for the second half of the season.

Q: So you were offered surgery as an option, and didn’t like it?

Bryant: Well, no, that’s bad timing. I’ve been playing with it, so it’s kind of routine to do that. But we have a great medical staff and we’ll stay on top of it.

Q: Can you protect it more than you did at Minnesota?

Bryant: You’ve just got to be careful. It’s tough though. Especially when you’re rebounding, offensive rebounds. It’s always tough. But what more can I do? It’s torn anyway.

Read the full interview here.

Melo talks West trades

Denver Nuggets All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony spoke on Friday:

Q: What are your thoughts on all of the trades that are taking place in the West?

Carmelo Anthony: I’m just waiting for my phone to ring and see what we are going to do. The West is getting back to the way it used to be. The Western Conference race is tough right now even for us because we are in the ninth spot I think, so we are trying for eighth. It’s going to come down to the last game in the season I can tell you that. Every team in the West has a chance to make the playoffs. We might do something before the deadline and we might not. If we don’t, I’m going to roll with what we’ve got. Right now I love the team that we have. I think anything we get will be a plus. I think with the team we have right now we can do a lot of things.

Also, Melo is picking Rudy Gay to win the Slam Dunk contest, but possibly only because Gay is from Baltimore, so it may just be a biased pick.

More from Carmelo Anthony here.