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Mason Plumlee comes in third in Dunk Contest, LaVine wins

By Reed Wallach
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Only one Net was part of All-Star Saturday night this year: Mason Plumlee. Plumlee was in the dunk contest with Zach LaVine, Victor Oladipo and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Plumlee came in third out of the four young stars, with two solid dunks, just not enough to take down LaVine, who brought down the house in Brooklyn and won it all.

Although he didn't win, Plumlee had a respectable showing before the home crowd which included Common, Ludacris, Rihanna, Floyd Mayweather, Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart, Michael Rapaport, John McEnroe, Mo'ne Davis, Julianne Moore, Spike Lee, and some guy named McCartney.

"That was one of the greatest dunking performances I've ever seen," said Plumlee after it was all over. "All four of them were above and beyond. Zach LaVine would have won it wherever they held it."

Plumlee was the first guy up in the event and used his former Duke teammate Kyrie Irving to throw the ball off the side of the backboard. Then Plumlee threw down a reverse dunk. It was a solid dunk, but took him three tires to get it off. He received a score of 40 from the judges.

Antetokounmpo used his freakish wingspan to try to bounce the ball high and throw it down from way out, but he couldn't complete the dunk and got a 30 from the judges. Oladipo stole the show though with a 540 going under the basket! He received a well deserved 50.

LaVine was the last one to go in the first round, and matched Oladipo's performance...

In the second round, Anteokounmpo didn't give a great dunk, as he used his brother Thanasis to lob it to him and he dunked it. Plumlee was up next and struggled to finish on his first two attempts and changed his mind. Plumlee then brought out his brother Miles, who Mason proceeded to dunk over.

It was clear that this was LaVine and Oladipo's night, and they were the two in the finals. After four great dunks from the two guys, they saved the best for last.

LaVine had a sweet through the legs dunk while Oladipo couldn't convert on a similar through the legs dunk. The score was 45-32 after the first round of dunking. Dipo struggled in the second round too, and this was all LaVine's.

The rookie out of UCLA ended up winning it, cementing it with a through the legs dunk from behind the hoop.

It was nasty, and was the perfect representation of entire dunk contest. He scored a 194 out of 200, one of the top scores in dunk history.  Plumlee competed in the Nets new alternate uniform, the one based on the Nets ABA motif and the first to use "Nets" since the move to Brooklyn.

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