Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 3-12-21

Sports
Claressa Shields Routs Marie-Eve Dicaire, Becomes Two-Division Undisputed Champ
CLARESSA SHIELDS AND MARIE-EVE DICAIRE
All-Star Game: Anfernee Simons Wins Dunk Contest
ANFERNEE SIMONS
The NBA All-Star weekend looked nothing like it usually does on Sunday, as the league condensed the event into a sin- gle day at State Farm Arena in Atlanta due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Skills Challenge, 3- Point Contest and Dunk Con- test, though, still delivered.
Anfernee Simons
showed off his hops, and nearly snuck a kiss with the rim in At- lanta, to win the Slam Dunk Contest on Sunday night.
Simons, after knocking out the Indiana Pacers' Cassius Stanley early, edged out New York Knicks rookie Obi Top- pin to claim the title with a wild slam in the final round.
Sabonis Tops Vucevic To Win 2021 Taco Bell Skills Challenge
DOMANTAS SABONIS
The big men continue to rule the Taco Bell Skills Chal- lenge.
Bigs were brought into the competition in 2016, and they’ve won four of the six com- petitions since then. By defeat- ing fellow big man Nikola Vucevic in the final round, In- diana Pacers All-Star Doman- tas Sabonis won the 2021 competition and joined Karl- Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and Bam Ade- bayo as big-men skills champs.
Sabonis had a perfect first two rounds, eliminating the Knicks’ Julius Randle and the Mavs’ Luka Doncic by going 2-for-2 on the pass and 2-for-2 from 3-point range. He nailed the pass again in the final round, but needed some help from Vucevic to close it out. Both bigs missed their first 3- point attempts, but Sabonis drained his fourth to take home the trophy.
Stephen Curry Wins NBA 3-Point Contest
Claressa Shields wanted to make history on Friday night on multiple levels. The first part she handled before she even stepped in the ring, head- lining an all-women's pay-per- view card.
The second part she took care of in the ring in a way sim- ilar to all of her fights before. Shields defeated Marie-Eve Dicaire by unanimous deci- sion to become the first boxer in the four-belt era (since 2004), male or female, to be an undisputed champion in two divisions. Shields retained her WBC and WBO junior mid- dleweight titles while claiming Dicaire's IBF crown and the vacant WBA world title.
"I did it," Shields said in
the ring after the fight, which marked the first time in 20 years a women's boxing match was the main event of a pay- per-view.
All three judges scored the fight 100-90, a clean sweep for the fighter who calls herself the greatest of all time. Shields landed 116 of 409 punches, and Dicaire landed 31 of 263. Shields landed double-digit punches in seven of the 10 rounds.
Afterward, Shields seemed frustrated with how the fight unfolded. She had been training with the idea of a knockout on her mind in her first pay-per-view fight. In- stead, she felt Dicaire's strat- egy was simply to survive.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Nabs NBA All-Star Game MVP
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry won his sec- ond 3-point contest, while In- diana Pacers forward Domantas Sabonis outdu- eled the Orlando Magic's Nikola Vucevic in the final round of the skills challenge prior to Sunday's NBA All- Star Game.
Curry scored 28 points in the final round of the 3-point contest, nailing his last "money ball" shot (worth two points) to beat Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley's total of 27.
STEPHEN CURRY
“This one goes out to Klay Thompson,” Curry said. “We got it done big fella.”
"It was some awesome competition,'' Curry said. "I'm glad I got it done.''
Thanks to a perfect 16-for- 16 performance from the field - - including banking in multiple jump shots -- Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetok- ounmpo won his first NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award, as Team Le- Bron cruised to a 170-150 vic- tory over Team Durant on Sunday night in Atlanta.
Antetokounmpo shat- tered the previous record of most makes without a miss in an All-Star Game, set by Hal Greer when he went 8-for-8 in 1968. But Antetokoun- mpo said his perfect shooting night wasn't something that was on his mind during the game.
GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO
controlled from start to finish, it was Antetokounmpo (who finished with a game- high 35 points), Curry (28 points and eight 3-pointers) and Lillard (32 points and the game-sealing 3-pointer) who led the way. The three fought for the MVP trophy down to the end, with Antetokoun- mpo ultimately winning it.
In a game Team LeBron
Blake Griffin Signs
With Brooklyn Nets
It was the league’s worst- kept secret: In Brooklyn, the rich get richer and a team with championship aspirations just added another talented play- maker desperate to get out of his previous situation.
Wait ‘til “they” get a load of this.
The Nets have asked the Warriors to hold their drink, and their pursuit of all six In- finity Stones continues with their latest signing. Blake Griffin and the Nets have agreed to a deal, according to ESPN, which means they’ve successfully pried the six-time All-Star from a Detroit fran- chise that agreed to buy out the remaining year-and-change of
BLAKE GRIFFIN
his contract.
When the signing is made
official, the Nets can run out a lineup that features Griffin, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan, easily one of the most talented five-man units this league will have seen in recent history.
PAGE 14-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2021