Luka Doncic tried to shoot from half court. Trae Young tried to knock one down, too. But it was Jayson Tatum who drilled a shot from the middle of the floor while trailing Trae Young to win the Skills Contest Championship on Saturday. The pair of young players couldn’t help but laugh. That’s the kind of event that kicked off All-Star Saturday night.
“Trae was already ahead of me, I saw him miss the first shot,” Tatum said. “We were just out there trying to have fun.”
The Skills Challenge matchups were picked by Karl-Anthony Towns and Atlanta rapper Ludacris, who randomly selected numbers that were representative of each player. Here’s how those matchups panned out.
Round 1
Nikola Jokic vs. Nikola Vucevic
Vucevic got off to a quicker start, but he missed the three. That gave The Joker a chance to come from behind and steal the win.
Mike Conley vs. Jayson Tatum
Conley also got off to a quick start, but he also let Tatum sneak back in by missing his first couple 3s.
TRAE YOUNG WAS BUILT FOR THIS COMPETITION
OK. Maybe not. Young missed all three of his chest passes and fell well behind De’Aaron Fox. But Fox missed his first 3. So Young hit a running three-pointer from 30 feet out to sneak a win.
Luka Doncic held it down
Round 2
Jayson Tatum knocks off NIkola Jokic
Because, you know — you’ve gotta make the first three!
TRAE YOUNG ELIMINATED LUKA DONCIC
This was the matchup we all wanted to see, and Young eliminated Doncic by knocking down his first three.
Then the matchup culminated with Tatum’s victory over Young. Here’s some history that the Celtics young star makes:
- In 2016, Karl-Anthony Towns defeated Isaiah Thomas in the championship and was met by some super, super hype teammates.
- In 2017, Kristaps Porzingis eliminated Gordon Hayward by stopping on a dime and hitting his very first triple in the championship round
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