NBA All-Star Saturday Night Live Running Diary

Good evening, Forum Blue and Gold. This is Phillip Barnett checking in from Houston. I’m in the Toyota Center for the festivities and I’ll be live-blogging all of the events tonight with updates from Texas. Make sure to check back here every 10-15 minutes for new content and follow me on twitter (@imsohideouss) for more frequent quips about All Star Saturday Night.

SHOOTING STARS COMPETITION

7:37 – James Harden’s team kicks this off the Shooting Stars challenge with a solid time of 37.7. They were my favorites coming into this. Westbrook’s team came right in and obliterated their score with a nice 29.5.

The scoring for this competition is a bit awkward as it’s East v. West — so the two times are added for a total of 107.4. Both Western Conference teams didn’t take much time to make the half court shot, I’m not sure if the Eastern Conference is going to replicate the West’s performance.

7:44 – Chris Bosh’s team didn’t exactly come out hot, and finished with a 50-second mark meaning Brook Lopez’s team would need a 17.3 to beat the Western Conference. Eh… not happening. Not only did they not hit the 17-second mark, they ended up with the worst time of the night of 1:07, the same score of the two Western Conference teams combined.

The Western Conference earns 20 points toward the overall conference competition. There is $500,000 worth of charity donations at stake for the winning conference. The West has jumped out to an early lead.

7:53 – For the championship round, Chris Bosh’s team had a worse performance than their first round with a time of 1:29. Dominique Wilkins, a career 31 percent three point shooter, was tasked with hitting the first three for the East, but took a boat load of shots to knock it down. Gothic Ginobili’s Adam Koscielac tweeted this gem:

https://twitter.com/AdamKoscielak/statuses/302958716251156480

However, the Russell Westbrook squad couldn’t hit a half court shot after getting off to a huge start early. They got to the half court shot after only about 20 seconds. The Eastern Conference wins 10 points in the overall competition for winning the championship. The West still leads 20-10.

After winning the Shooting Stars competition, Chris Bosh was asked to compare the win to winning the title.”It was so close. It’s so close. Winning is winning, but, you know, it was a good time,” said Bosh. “This is my first time participating in it. So to actually win is pretty cool.”

Here’s the winning round of the Shooting Stars competition, courtesy of SportsCity.com.

SKILLS COMPETITION

8:06 – Jeff Teague didn’t get things off to a great start for the Eastern Conference. He started off missing passes, then took a few attempts to make the jumper, then missed a few more passes, then missed the layup to end the night. His 49.4 was easily eclipsed by Brandon Knight’s 32.2. He missed a few jumpers, but he has a pretty clean round. Drew Holiday was even cleaner with only one missed shot. Holiday’s final time was 29.3, which moves him into the championship round. The combined time is 150.9, which is what the Western Conference will have to surpass to win the team competition.

8:13 – The hometown favorite Jeremy Lin didn’t get off to the best start with a time of 35.8, but he got the Western Conference off to a better start than the Eastern Conference. Damien Lillard had the cleanest round of the night with no missed shots or passes. His total time was 28.8. Tony Parker, the defending champion, ended up with the worst time of the night with 48.7 and lost the team competition for the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference now has a 40-20.

8:21 – Jrue Holiday got the championship round started off with a sub-par 35.6 round. He missed an early pass and a couple jump shots to put him in a tough spot. Damien Lillard, who is the front runner for rookie of the year, had a much quicker round of 29.8. He missed two passes and one jump shot, but was much quicker from spot-to-spot and gave the Western Conference annother 10 points. The East is still leading though, 40-30.

Here’s Damien Lillard’s winning round in the Skills Competition:

Zach Harper tweeted this brilliant idea for the Skills Competition:

The last shot should really be a floater. If you miss that, then you can lay it in.

— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 17, 2013

These tweets on Phillip Phillips’ performance were fun:

Phillip Phillips performing at NBA All-Star weekend is like 2Chainz performing at the NHL All-Star game.

— LA Sports Radio (@LASportsRadio) February 17, 2013

https://twitter.com/JADubin5/statuses/302968921705820160

How many NBA players you think have Philip Phillips in their iPod?…

— warriorsworld (@warriorsworld) February 17, 2013

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

— Apollo Kid (@Bang4UrBuk) February 17, 2013

THREE-POINT SHOOT OUT

8:42 – Stephen Curry got off to a pretty slow start in the 3-point shoot out, but picked things up in the last two racks to finish with 17. Ryan Anderson was the exact opposite. He started off hot, but cooled off at the third rack, yet he still finished with more than Curry with 18. Bonner started off 5-5 after the first rack and ended on top for the Western Conference with 19 points. That’s an overall total score of 54 for the Western Conference. That’s the standard that the Eastern Conference is going to beat. Bonner’s has one of the most mechanically pure forms I’ve ever seen.

8:53 – The Eastern Conference off to another slow start, this time in the 3-point contest. Kyrie Irving got things started off with 18 points, and watch as Paul George only record 10 points and Steve Novak only record 17, even after a pretty hot start. The Eastern Conference surrenders 40 points to the West after their poor performance in the team round. The score heading into the championship is 70-40.

9:00 – In the championship round, Kyrie Irving was hitting early and often. He finished with an overall score of 23 — two off off the all time record. Matt Bonner got off to a slow start, heated up, but couldn’t knock down a key money ball on the fourth rack to keep him close. The Red Mamba finished with 20 points and Kyrie’s excellent All-Star Weekend continues. I enjoyed this Josh Zavdil tweet during Kyrie’s run.

#KYRIESWERVING

— Hot Dog Man (@JoshuaZavadil) February 17, 2013

Here’s Kyrie Irving’s winning round from the 3-point contest.

DUNK CONTEST

9:26 – Gerald Green got things started with a sick off the side of the back board alley-oop. He almost hit his head on the rim. It was pretty absurd and it earned him a perfect 50. Up next was James White, he walked into the arena with a flight crew and had the biggest buzz before his dunk. Unfortunately, he was a bit disappointing with a free throw line dunk from a foot and a half in front of the line. His leaping ability is impressive, but the dunk was underwhelming considering what we’ve seen in the past. Last for the Eastern Conference was Terrance Ross with a slick behind the back 360 that earned him a perfect 50.

For the Western Conference, there wasn’t anything too impressive. Kenneth Faried threw it off the backboard, caught it after a 360, but jammed it down kind of weak. Eric Bledsoe tried to throw one down from an alley-oop between the legs, but failed on a few attempts before throwing down a regular dunk. Jeremy Evans was the most impressive with grabbing the ball from a sitting Mark Eaton and throwing down a reverse on the other side of the rim.

9:39 – The second round of dunks for the Eastern Conference were pretty unimpressive. Both James White and Gerald Green failed to make their dunk while Terrance Ross made a pretty simple off the bounce self alley-oop dunk. The Western Conference was much better. Faried caught an alley-oop and threw it between his legs before throwing it down. Eric Bledsoe caught a self alley-oop and 360’d before throwing it through the iron. Jeremy Evans grabbed two balls and dunked them both after a 360. The WC dunks gave them the team competition win and a 140-70 lead.

10:03 – The final round showed some pretty impressive dunks. Jeremy Evans got things started off by dunking over a covered easel. After the dunk, he revealed a painting of him dunking over an easel. Ross followed that up by putting on a Vince Carter jersey and caught a pass off the side of the back board and threw down a 360 a la young VC.

The second round of dunks saw Evans catch a pass from Dahntay Jones and nearly jumped through the roof before throwing it down. Ross brought out a ball boy and jumped over him while going between the legs for the jam.

Ross ended up winning the dunk contest after the fan vote and the Western Conference ended up winning the conference battle. Check out some of the better dunks from tonight’s performances:

Terrance Ross Behind the back 360
http://youtu.be/KjZTGWIFagk

Kenneth Faried through the legs
http://youtu.be/iVQbhvHAQCQ

Eric Bledsoe sick reverse jam
http://youtu.be/CfVqUwKO0sA