Next up will be the Three-Point Contest, which is one of only two places known to man where the ‘3’ in ‘3-Point’ is spelled out. The other place is in sports copy for the Deutsche Press Agency. They also list dates as 11 Sept 2001, so what do they know?
The defending champion is Kevin Love, who is not entered because he broke his hand. Twice. That leaves the field wide open, especially because 24 of the top 28 three 3-point-shooters – including league leader Kyle Korver – are not entered.
Here’s who is entered:
Stephen Curry, Golden State, 2nd (.449, 142-of-316)
Steve Novak, New York, 3rd (.444, 91-of-205)
Kyrie Irving, Cleveland, 10th (.429, 78-of-182)
Matt Bonner, San Antonio, 15th (.421, 32-of-76)
Ryan Anderson, New Orleans, 29th (.397, 147-of-370)
Paul George, Indiana, 41st (.387, 108-of-279)
Curry, Bonner and Anderson will shoot for the West, while Novak, Irving and George will shoot for the East. My money is on Curry to suffer a sprained ankle while tripping on a ball rack.
The final event of the night is the Slam Dunk Contest. A couple weeks ago in our Rookie Rankings Column, we suggested a four-man field of Terrence Ross of Toronto, James “Flight” White of New York, former champion Gerald Green of Indiana and defending champion Jeremy Evans of Utah, who I think is still in the league.
So what did the NBA do? They stole our idea! They also added Kenneth Faried of Denver and Eric Bledsoe of the Los Angeles Clippers. Ross, White and Green will dunk for the East and Evans, Faried and Bledsoe for the West.
With six dunkers, multiple attempts and the use of props, it will be a miracle if TNT is off the air before 1 a.m. ET.
My pick is Bledsoe, who is just 6-1 while everyone else is at least 6-6. He should get the crowd on his side right away with something like this: