CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Larry O’Brien is getting company in the Cavaliers trophy case.
Okay, maybe not really, but the hometown Team Cavs won the NBA All-Star Taco Bell Skills Challenge Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse besting the Rooks and Antetokounmpos.
Cleveland’s hometown team of Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley took home the hardware after Mobley hit a halfcourt shot in 5.5 seconds to best the Rooks time of 9.9 in the final round.
“I felt it when it came off,” Mobley said. “You could see me. It looked good.”
The Cavs almost didn’t advance to the final challenge after winning the opening challenge – shooting.
Sparked by a hot start by Mobley, who hit his first five shots and Garland totaling 24 points to finish with 44 as a team, the Cavs won the 100 challenge points from the round after the Rooks totaled 32 and the Antetokounmpos 20.
“I was just going out there and having fun,” Mobley said. “Just shot it, and, I mean, almost all of them went in, so it was all good.”
The Rooks and Antetokounmpos both scored 88 in the passing competition with the tiebreaker going to the Antetokounmpos for hitting the most outlet passes. The Cavs scored 70 points.
“I think just the camaraderie that we have on and off the court helped us win,” Allen said. “We had to go up against some brothers, so obviously, they have a tighter bond than us, but I still give us credit for how we compete for each other.”
The Rooks won the team relay to earn 200 challenge points advance to the final while the Antetokounmpos and Cavs ran out the 90 second limit.
To break the tie, Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Garland attempted a 3 from the top of the key with an obstruction in front of them. Thanasis missed and Garland splashed his pushing Team Cavs to the final.
This year’s All-Star Saturday night was the debut of a new Skills Challenge that featured a three team, four challenge format.
“It was a lot of excitement. The crowd was going crazy,” Garland said. “It felt like a home game, to be honest with you. It was good just to have them, just have our support, have our backs throughout the entire little Skills Challenge. It was fun just hearing them when we came out. It was cool.”
Karl Anthony Towns won the 3-point contest and Obi Toppin survived a slow dunk contest.