The NBA’s All-Star Weekendkicked off Friday with the Rising Stars event, featuring a twist: The winner of the four-team mini-tournament of first- and second-year NBA players (plus one G League squad) advances to participate in Sunday’s All-Star Game.

The festivities continued on Saturday starting off with the Skills Challenge, which was dominated by the duo of Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell despite the controversy surrounding the disqualification of San Antonio Spurs partners, Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul. The sharp-shooters of the league then went head-to-head in the 3-point contest, with Damian Lillard going for a three-peat. In the end he was de-throned by Tyler Herro.

The highly anticipated dunk contest did end in a three-peat as reigning champion Mac McClung took the trophy home once again after a battle against Rising Star MVP Stephon Castle.

We’ll grade the competitors in events all weekend, starting with Friday’s teams from the Rising Stars showcase, then moving onto Saturday’s skills competition, 3-point contest and dunk contest. Then finally, assessing the All-Star mini-tournament on Sunday when the superstars of the league take center stagewith a revamped format.

Skills competition | 3-point contest | Dunk contest|Rising Stars

SKILLS COMPETITION

To kick off All-Star Saturday night, Cleveland Cavaliers‘ forward Evan Mobley joined Damian Lillard, Steve Nash and Dwyane Wade as multi-time winners of the Skills Challenge. Mobley, Jarret Allen and Darius Garland won the title during 2022 All-Star Weekend in front of home fans in Cleveland, but this time around he teamed up with fellow All-Star Donovan Mitchell to add a second team win in San Francisco.

The Skills Challenge was the most memorable for the San Antonio Spurs duo of Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama after they were disqualified for not making valid shot attempts. Check out our grades from all the competitors’ performances from the Skills Challenge.

Winners: Team Cavs (Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley)

Grade: A-

What stood out: Mitchell and Mobley narrowly edged their way into the finals after Mobley struggled badly with his shooting in the first round, but aced the course in their second time through. Mobley missed his chest pass, having to double back as he did in the first round, which was the only blemish for Team Cavs in the final. Mitchell stood out with a one-handed pass on target and finished in under 30 seconds, giving Cleveland a winning time of 1:00.4.

Grade: B

What stood out: The home team dominated the opening round, racing through the course in barely more than a minute thanks to strong shooting by Moody and Green banking in a 3-pointer. Facing more pressure in the final after Team Cavs set the time to beat, Team Warriors got off to a strong start with Moody racing through the course in half a minute to then have Green unable to complete all the skills. He missed all three of his passes at the first target, then knocked the balls out of the first shooting rack in his hurry. Time ran out with Green still on the other end of the court from the finish line.

Grade: B-

What stood out: Going after the disqualified Spurs probably worked against the top two picks in this year’s draft, who didn’t fully break a sweat with no time to beat. No. 1 pick Risacher did well enough to advance to give their squad a shot at the final, but No. 2 pick Sarr was a little bit slower through the course and that ended up costing Team Rooks as they finished a little more than a second behind Team Cavs.

Fourth-place: Team Spurs (Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama)

Grade: F

What stood out: The Spurs outthought themselves by trying to game the Skills Challenge. Wembanyama, who took credit for the idea afterward, and Paul just tossed up “shots” as quickly as possible at the three shooting stations — coming nowhere within the vicinity of the basket — and were disqualified for not making valid attempts.

Frankly, the NBA deserves an F here too. The fact that making a shot is irrelevant to a timed competition was always an obvious problem with the obstacle-course format and one that would easily be rectified by adding a time penalty (say, five seconds) for a competitor who misses all three required shots.

That said, if you’re going to violate the spirit of the competition, you better at least make sure you’re playing by the written rules. Paul and Wembanyama paid for it with no shot to redeem themselves.

3-POINT COMPETITION

Saturday’s NBA 3-point contest saw Damian Lillard fall short of history as his quest for a three-peat ended in the opening round, while Buddy Hield made some by tying the record with a first-round score of 31 points.

In the end, however, it was Tyler Herro who was crowned 3-point champion by putting up 24 points in the final round. Here are my grades for all eight of Saturday’s competitors.

Final Scores:

Final

First Round

Winner: Tyler Herro, Miami Heat

Grade: A-

What stood out:Credit Herro for saving his best for last. Herro’s opening-round score of 19 was just barely good enough to advance, and that required him to make 11 of his last 16 shots — including becoming the first player all night to make the deep three. Leading off in the finals, Herro made both his deep shots and went four-of-five from the top of the key. That set the bar high at 24 and proved enough to make Herro the winner.

Grade: A-

What stood out: Although he lost the finals this time around, the 2020 3-point winner made history in front of home fans with his opening-round score of 31. That tied Warriors teammate Stephen Curry in 2021 and Tyrese Haliburton in 2023 for the highest score in a single round, albeit benefiting from the addition of the moneyball rack and the deep shots that have inflated scores since they were introduced in 2014 and 2020, respectively.

Like Haliburton, Hield was unable to translate a historic first round into hardware. He captured the excitement of the arena with a late run. Needing to make all his remaining shots, Hield hit his moneyball from the left wing and his first three attempts from the left corner. Moments like that are why the 3-point contest should be the anchor leg of All-Star Saturday night rather than the dunk contest. Alas, Hield missed his fourth attempt from his moneyball rack, meaning he finished one point behind Herro.

Grade: B+

What stood out:Wearing the No. 22 his father, Winston, sported for seven seasons in the NBA (including two-plus with the Warriors), Garland tied for the second-best score of the night, putting up 24 points in the first round thanks to eight makes in his final 10 attempts. Garland had less success in the finals, putting up a score of 19, and was last of the three competitors.

First-rounders:

Grade: B-

What stood out:Brunson got off to the strongest start of anyone in round one, hitting four of his five shots beginning in the left corner, including the moneyball. Brunson also made the first of two deep 3s but did not finish strong. He made just two shots from his moneyball rack in the right corner. One more make would have sent Brunson to the finals and knocked out eventual winner Tyler Herro.

Grade: B-

What stood out:If we were grading on a curve using past results, Lillard would have scored even worse. The two-time defending champ looked well on his way to another finals appearance after making his first four shots from the left wing, meaning he needed to hit just three of his final six attempts. Instead, Lillard missed his moneyball attempt and went 2-for-5 from his moneyball rack in the left corner. That left Lillard one point shy of advancing.

Grade: C+

What stood out:Despite a casual approach, Cunningham got through all his racks. That was important because the Pistons’ frontman made four of five from the left corner, both his moneyball rack and the final one. That pushed Cunningham briefly into contention for advancing, but he was never a serious contender.

Grade: C

What stood out:A late surge helped Johnson avoid finishing last. Through the first three racks, Johnson had just five points, but he went 4-for-5 from his moneyball rack on the right wing and then went 3-for-5 from the right corner. One factor that worked against Johnson was that he missed all four of his regular moneyball shots.

Grade: C

What stood out:Powell looked like he was heating up when he knocked down his final four shots from the left wing, but he couldn’t continue that success on his final moneyball rack. Powell went 2-for-5 from the left corner, finishing with 14 points to tie for last with Johnson.

DUNK CONTEST

After a lackluster start, Saturday’s slam dunk contest put on a show as rookie Stephon Castle pushed two-time defending champion Mac McClung to the final showdown. Despite near-perfect scores for Castle in the finals, McClung went four-for-four with 50-point dunks to become the first player in the history of the dunk contest to win three years in a row. After the night’s bounciest competition, we graded all four of Saturday’s competitors.

Winner: Mac McClung, Osceola Magic (G League)

Grade: A

What stood out: On a night where the dunk contest celebrated the 25 years since Vince Carter delivered his renowned 2000 contest, with Carter commentating on the TNT broadcast, McClung delivered a worthy contender for the all-time rankings.

All four of McClung’s dunks earned perfect scores, and rightfully so. He started by doing Blake Griffin’s winning dunk from the 2011 contest one better by jumping over a Kia while grabbing the ball from a helper stationed inside the sunroof and reverse dunking it. Notably, Griffin jumped over only the hood of the car, while McClung cleared the full body of the vehicle.

To cap his performance, and perhaps his dunk contest career, McClung jumped over 6-foot-11 All-Star Evan Mobley, who was standing on a platform to elevate him beyond 7 feet. (Mobley ducked, but McClung still got way up.) Grabbing the ball off Mobley’s shoulders, McClung hung in the air long enough to hit the ball off the rim and raise it back up to finish.

In the first round, McClung jumped over his helper and turned to dunk the other direction — his most modest effort of the night — and then positioned his helper on a moving hoverboard and grabbed the ball to windmill with his right hand while simultaneously dunking home a second ball with the left.

If he wasn’t there already, Saturday cemented McClung’s place among the great competitors in dunk contest history.

Grade: A-

What stood out: Castle made McClung work in the final round. Castle got a perfect score — the only other player to receive one all night besides McClung — on his final dunk by going behind his back from right to left (his off-hand) and cuffing the finish while completing a 180-degree spin. Castle fell just short of McClung’s standard on his first dunk of the final when it took him multiple attempts before completing an ambitious dunk, taking the ball out of the bottom of the net and windmilling between his legs.

Had Castle made that dunk on his first attempt, it might have merited a 50. It would be difficult to argue Castle was the deserving winner, however, particularly because his first-round dunks — a 180-degree windmill and a pass off the backboard for a reverse windmill — had a lower degree of difficulty.

Grade: C

What stood out: A solid second dunk — a reverse windmill from a pass off the side of the backboard — got Buzelis a score (47.4) in the same range as Stephon Castle’s pair of dunks. By that point, however, Buzelis had effectively been eliminated because he missed all three attempts in his first dunk. Buzelis couldn’t put down a bounce between his legs from the baseline. After two failed attempts, the Bulls’ rookie would have been wise to try something easier to finish.

Grade: C

What stood out: Jackson was unable to put down his original attempt on either dunk. He tried several more exciting options on his first dunk before settling for a two-hand windmill that was more of a game dunk than a competition one. After failing to complete a pass off the side of the backboard for a 360-degree finish on his second dunk, Jackson pivoted to cuffing a powerful windmill. That earned him third place and would have required Castle missing to give Jackson a shot at the finals.

RISING STARS