Wall leads East to All-Star dunk title

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS

The Eastern Conference trio of Toronto’s Terrence Ross, Indiana’s Paul George and Washington’s John Wall won the NBA All-Star Saturday night slam dunk contest.

Wall capped the triumph by leaping over a Wizards mascot while grabbing the ball from in front of the mascot’s head, then throwing down a double-pump, reverse, two-handed jam. The dunk eliminated Sacramento’s Ben McLemore, the last hope for the Western Conference. Wall was named “dunker of the night.”

For the first time, the dunk contest was a competition between conferences. Along with McLemore, the West was represented by Portland’s Damian Lillard, Golden State’s Harrison Barnes.

3-point contest

San Antonio’s Marco Belinelli won the 3-point contest.

The Italian, who previously played for New Orleans, needed to win a tiebreaker round in the final to beat Bradley Beal.

The Washington All-Star had made his final six shots, including two “money balls” worth two points each, to tie Belinelli’s initial final-round score of 19.

Belinelli then racked up an event-high score of 24 for the win.

There were four shooters from each conference.

Belinelli had a score of 19 to win the West, beating Damian Lillard’s 18. Beal had a score of 21 to win the East, easily eclipsing defending champ Kyrie Irving’s total of 16.

Skills challenge

Earlier, the tandem of Portland’s Damian Lillard and Utah’s Trey Burke won the skills challenge, while Team Bosh, consisting of Miami’s Chris Bosh, former NBA star Dominique Wilkins and WNBA player Swin Cash, won the shooting stars event.

Lillard won the skills challenge for the second straight year.

Lillard and Burke, representing the Western Conference, beat the tandem of Michael Carter-Williams and Victor Oladipo of the East in the final round by a tenth of a second.

The skills course consists of dribbling around obstacles, passing to targets, and hitting shots from medium and close range. The winning time was 45.2 seconds.

In the first round, Lillard and Burke beat Phoenix’s Goran Dragic and Oklahoma City’s Reggie Jackson.

Carter-Williams and Oladipo downed Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan to represent the East in the final round.

Shooting Stars contest

Bosh hit a half-court shot to give his team the victory in the Shooting Stars contest that opened up NBA All-Star Saturday night.

Team Bosh had a final-round time of 31.4 seconds.

Each team had to hit shots from 10 feet from a right-side angle, the top of the key, 3-point range and half court, with the victory going to the team with the best time.

Team Durant, consisting of Kevin Durant, Karl Malone and Skylar Diggins, opened the final round with a time of 43.6.

There were two teams from each conference. Team Durant beat Team Curry — made up of Stephen Curry, Dell Curry and Becky Hammon — in the first round to represent the West. Team Bosh edged Team Hardaway — consisting of Tim Hardaway Jr., Tim Hardaway Sr. and Elena Delle Donne in the first round.