Griffin entitled king of Slam Dunk
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Fan favorite Blake Griffin of the Clippers was voted the winner of Slam Dunk contest at the NBA All-Star on Saturday, edging off Wizards center JaVale McGee through text message vote from fans nationwide.
In the final round, Griffin flied over the front of a car after taking a pass from his teammate Baron Davis, who sat in a compact car and tosse the ball from the sunroof, to finish his stunning show, which made up for his first dunk.
"You bring a car out, you're going to win any dunk contest," McGee said. "It was a lot of hype, but it was worth it. It was smart by his part and definitely worth it. Nothing is going to beat a car unless I bring a plane out or something."
McGee's first in final round was impressive as the center jumped past rim and pulled off a reverse millwind dunk, but the wrapping up dunk seemed less striking.
The two got the highest two-dunk combined scores from five judges at Staples Center to advance to the finals of the Slam Dunk contest at Staples Center.
Griffin's 360-degree corkscrew slam and windmill dunk off a ball bounced from the side of the backboard triggered big applause and scored 95 combined points.
McGee outperformed on creativity on first round competition by delivering a pair of simultaneous dunks. With a ball in each hand, he dunked into side-by-side baskets and got a perfect 50 point score from judges in first effort.
"I knew Blake Griffin was the crowd favorite," McGee said. "I just wanted to make sure I came out hard and the most creative I could be. Definitely come out with something nobody had ever seen before. I felt like I had to hold it down for the whole city of D.C."
In his second dunk, McGee dunked three balls at once, the third feed to him as he slammed the first two. He scored 99 points for the round.
Thunder power forward Serge Ibaka in his second attempt gave off a bizarre dunk by snatching a stuffed toy hanging from the rim with his teeth while doing a reverse slam. But Ibaka was eliminated in the first round as was Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan.
In Three-Point shootout, Heat's James Jones made smooth shooting stroke to help the Miami Heat finally beat the Boston Celtics at something this season.
The Heat's outside specialist held off Boston teammates Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to win his first three-point contest, scoring 20 points in the final round.
Although Pierce was the defending champion and Allen recently became the NBA's career leader in three-pointers, neither could match Jones' score in front of booing Lakers fans, ending in 18 and 15 points respectively.
"Those guys were cheering for me, rooting for me," said Jones, whose new-look Heat have lost three straight this season to the Celtics.
"We know we've had our struggles against the Celtics in the past, but today the Heat came out on top, so I'm excited about that."
In the Skills Challenge, the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry came out first and was firing on all cylinders, nailing his passes and his jump shot.
He put some serious pressure on the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook, who led the first round, as he tore through the course in 28.2 seconds.
Westbrook was up next. He zoomed through the first sections, but couldn't come up with the bounce pass, jump shot, or outlet pass. He knew half way through he couldn't catch Curry, eventually finishing in 44.2 seconds.
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