By MICHAEL MAROT (AP Sports Writer)
INDIANAPOLIS — Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard defended his NBA 3-point contest title by finishing with 26 points in the final round during All-Star Saturday night.
Lillard, who won with Portland last season, became the eighth player to win at least two 3-point crowns and the first since Jason Kapono in 2007 and 2008 to do it in consecutive years.
This one nearly ended without Lillard advancing to the final round. Four players — Lillard, Tre Young of Atlanta, Tyrese Haliburton of Indiana and Karl Anthony-Towns of Minnesota — finished in a tie for the three spots in the last round. Haliburton was eliminated in the tiebreaking round with 12 points.
Then in the final, Young and Towns each put up 24 points, giving Lillard a chance to win it with a late shooting flurry that gave him the title.
The final event of the night, the Slam Dunk Contest, was set to begin later.
SKILLS CHALLENGE
Two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton made the tiebreaking half-court shot with 20.5 seconds left in a timed contest Saturday night to give Team Pacers the NBA’s Skills Challenge crown over Team All-Stars.
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Haliburton, Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin teamed up to win the night’s first two competitions — the team relay and the passing competition — at Lucas Oil Stadium, just a short walk from their home arena.
Team All-Stars’ win in the shooting contest tied the score at 200, forcing the tiebreaker.
It took Team All-Stars 58.8 seconds to make its first half-court shot. Haliburton needed just 38.3 seconds for a win that continued a big weekend for the Pacers, who are hosting their first All-Star weekend since 1985.
Mathurin was selected MVP of Friday night’s Rising Stars game after leading Team Jalen past Team Detlef, a game that pitted two former Pacers players as coaches — Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf.