Belinelli wins NBA All-Star 3-point contest
Chris Bosh, of the Miami Heat (1) and WNBA Chicago Sky player Swin Cash walk the court during the skills competition at the NBA All Star basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014, in New Orleans. AP
NEW ORLEANS — The San Antonio Spurs’ Marco Belinelli won the 3-point contest at NBA All-Star Saturday.
The Italian needed to win a tiebreaker round in the final to beat the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal.
Beal had made his final six shots, including two “money balls” worth two points each, to tie Belinelli’s final-round score of 19. The Italian then racked up an event-high score of 24 for the win.
There were four shooters from both the Eastern and Western conferences.
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.
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.
The skills course consists of dribbling around obstacles, passing to targets, and hitting shots from medium and close range.
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.
Bosh hit a half-court shot to give his team the victory in the shooting stars contest that opened NBA All-Star Saturday.
In the contest, each team must hit shots from 10 feet from a right-side angle, the top of the key, 3-point range and half court, and the team with the best time wins.
There were two teams from each conference consisting of a current NBA player, a former player and a WNBA player.
Bosh, Wilkins and Cash had a final-round time of 31.4 seconds to beat Team Durant, consisting of Kevin Durant, Karl Malone and Skylar Diggins.
