Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris won’t be adding All-Star Saturday Night gold to their resumes nor championship bowls to their trophy cases. The Nets who’ve each won in the past came up empty in the Skills Competition (Dinwiddie) and the Three-point Contest (Harris.)
Dinwiddie was eliminated by Heat center Bam Adebayo in the first round of the Skills Competition, and Joe Harris needed 26 points to advance past the first round of the Three-Point Contest, but only scored 22. Buddy Heild of the Kings was the ultimate winner.
Dinwiddie of course won the Skills Competition two years ago and Harris the Three-Point Contest last year.
Both told Kristian Winfield how they lost.
The Skills Competition is an event that pits guards against bigs in an obstacle course that tests speed, passing, dribbling and shooting. Adebayo coasted through the course and made his three before Dinwiddie ever got a chance to shoot. And that was that.
“God has a lovely sense of humor because he allowed Bam to hit his first shot, which is craziness,” Dinwiddie told the Daily News. “I didn’t underestimate anybody. If you’re gonna lose, lose to the winner.
“He hit the first one. Like, the first one? Really? Nobody was expecting that shit.”
Indeed, Adebayo who’s shot 1-of-11 this season shot 3-of-6 in the competition, as John Schuhmann of NBA.com pointed out.
Adebayo had predicted he’d win.
“Go look at the tape. I told Spencer I’m going to be the champion,” Adebayo said. “He took me lightly. Now I’m the champion. I got a shiny medal.”
Harris meanwhile didn’t meet last year’s numbers. He scored 25 in the first round last year, setting him up for a one-on-one with Steph Curry, who he beat with a 26. This year, he only got to 22 in the first, failing to hit either of the 30-foot shots added to the competition this year and not doing well on his money ball rack at the end.
“I set it up nicely, I just didn’t hit my money ball rack,” he told Winfield. “Last year, thinking back on it, I did really well particularly because I hit my money balls. If you can do that, you’re gonna set yourself up nicely, and you kinda saw that tonight.
“You get to the end and you’ve established sort of a rhythm. You’re pretty locked in. It felt good, but I was off the mark a little bit.”
As defending champ, he was the last of the eight competitors to shoot, something he thought threw him off a bit.
The Nets might ultimately get some good news out of the night, Stefan Bondy tweeted.
At all star weekend two years ago Spencer Dinwiddie befriended Kyrie Irving and you know the rest. This year Dinwiddie said he’s gotten close to Bam Adebayo but he knows they won’t be teammates: “Miami will give him the max.”
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) February 15, 2020
Hey, how many power forwards does a team need?
- Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie knocked out of Three-Point, Skills contests - Kristian WInfield - New York Daily News
- Nets’ Joe Harris comes up short in NBA All-Star Three-Point Contest - Alex Smith - SNY
- Here’s how Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie fared in the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge - Alex Smith - SNY