Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 2-20-18

Sports
LeBron James Scores 29, Wins His Third Career All-Star Game MVP
LEBRON JAMES
LeBron James And Kyrie Irving Shared A Wonderful All-Star Game Moment
KYRIE IRVING AND LEBRON JAMES
One of the “dramatic” story- lines going into NBA All-Star Weekend was that former Cav- aliers teammates LeBron James and Kyrie Irving would be back playing together again after James selected Irving to be on his team.
James said he picked Irv- ing, who was traded to the Celtics in August, because he thought it’d be nice to bring back the old memories they had together in Cleveland. It looks like they had a wonderful time.
This is exactly like what happened with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook at last year’s All-Star Game. Everyone wondered if the two would get along, and they did. If any of these players hate each other, they don’t act like it dur- ing All-Star Weekend.
Brooklyn's Spencer Dinwiddie Captures Taco Bell Skills Challenge
SPENCER DINWIDDIE
In the third year of guards vs. bigs in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the guards finally won. But it was a big guard that did it.
The Brooklyn Nets' 6-6 point guard Spencer Dinwid- die defeated the Chicago Bulls' Lauri Markkanen in the final round to take home the Skills Challenge trophy.
The Skills Challenge is about two things, the chest pass and the top-of-the-key 3- pointer. Connect on the chest pass and you're out to an early lead, but if you can't make the three, your opponent can come from behind. Dinwiddie con- nected on his first chest pass to getouttoabigleadon Markkanen. He missed his first 3-point attempt, but still had plenty of time and sunk his second before Markkanen could make it to the line.
Victor Oladipo Gets Assist
Superstar LeBron James handpicked his team and then carried it to victory in a 148-145 win for "Team LeBron" over "Team Stephen" on Sunday in the first playground-pick-em- style NBA All-Star Game.
James had 29 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and several key plays down the stretch to secure the win and his third All-Star Game MVP.
The new format, which Kevin Durant said was in- troduced to "change the nar- rative of the All-Star Game being a joke," was a smashing success.
"For me to be the captain of the team, Steph [Curry] being the captain of his team, and us doing that, that draft was something that hadn't been done before," James said. "The great thing about our commissioner [Adam Silver], he's absolutely OK with trying something new, to change the format, and it def-
initely worked out for every- body. It worked out not only for the players, not only for the league, but for our fans, for everybody. It was a great weekend, and we capped it off the right way."
James' step-back 3- pointer over Joel Embiid with 1:30 remaining tied the game at 144. James followed that with a layup off a feed from Kyrie Irving (who was laughing with LeBron on the sideline during game) with 34.5 seconds left to put his squad up for good, 146-145.
"I played with him a few times," Irving said. "I cut back door, [Russell West- brook] was driving, I saw the opportunity. I saw, before Russ even passed to me, Le- Bron was going to circle to the rim and [is] one of the best finishers at the rim. So it was kind of an easy drop-off to give us that lead.
"We've done it plenty of times before, so nothing new."
Victor Oladipo went Hollywood while in Los Ange- les for the Slam Dunk contest.
The Indiana Pacers guard performed a cool “Black Pan- ther” dunk for his second dunk in the contest. Actor Chadwick Boseman, who plays the titular superhero in the Marvel movie “Black Pan- ther”, was sitting courtside for the dunk contest at Staples Center on Saturday night. Oladipo came over to Bose- man and was given a Black Panther mask to wear.
Oladipo put on the mask and attempted a dunk. He
CHADWICK BOSEMAN AND VICTOR OLADIPO
missed his first attempt but stuffed home the second, much to the delight of fans and Boseman.
We certainly love the cre- ativity and product placement in Oladipo’s dunk.
From Chadwick Boseman
On ‘Black Panther’ Dunk
Devin Booker Takes JBL 3-Point Contest In Record Fashion
Devin Booker has es- tablished himself as one of the game's great shooters and confirmation came Sat- urday during a record run at the JBL Three-Point Contest.
The Suns guard amassed an event-record 28 points in the final round. Booker boosted his total by draining four out of five shots from his money ball rack. He also hit all the money balls in his other four racks. Overall, Booker hit 20 of 25 shots to edge former champ Klay Thompson, who took sec-
DEVIN BOOKER
ond with 25 points.
The defending champ,
Eric Gordon of the Rock- ets, didn't escape the first round.
Dennis Smith, Jr. Calls
Out Judges’ Scoring
In Dunk Contest
Dennis Smith, Jr. came up short in Saturday night’s Slam Dunk Contest, and he had a few choice words for the judges’ scores afterwards.
The Dallas Mavericks rookie failed to advance to the championship round in the competition and took to social media roughly an hour after it ended. In a tweet, Smith pointed to the fact that a dou- ble-pump dunk of his barely got a better score than a literal non-dunk by fellow partici- pant Victor Oladipo.
For what it’s worth, Aaron Gordon scored a 47 for a sim- ilar double-pump dunk two years ago. But Smith did need a second attempt to convert his, having missed a 360 wind- mill attempt on his first try of the round.
All that aside, the judging did come across as a bit ques-
DENNIS SMITH, JR.
tionable this year — the non- basketball figures (DJ Khaled, Mark Wahlberg, and Chris Rock) somehow outnumbered the actual bas- ketball figures (Lisa Leslie and Julius Erving) on the judges’ table. But perhaps Smith can get some solace from the perfect 50 he scored for a between-the-legs 360 on his second go-around (a score he achieved without having to resort to theatrics like his op- ponents).
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