The NBA’s marquee evening got underway at a raucous Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, as the Skills Competition debuted a new Bigs-and-Smalls format.
The eight-man obstacle course tournament pitted four traditional bigs and four guards against each other in a test of dribbling, cutting, passing, and shooting. In prior years, the event was dominated by guards, with the smaller, quicker players considered at an advantage given their comfort level handling the ball, their agility, and their quickness.
That’s not how it played out, with Karl-Anthony Towns beating Isaiah Thomas in the finals to take home the crown and unseat defending champion in absentia Patrick Beverley. It wasn’t without drama, as Towns and Thomas were neck-and-neck in the finals, with Towns beating him to the final 3-point shot by a hair. He would miss, and then he and Thomas would trade several errant threes before Towns sank his fourth attempt, sending the ACC crowd up in a roar.
KAT wins the skills competition! pic.twitter.com/eNRJbBnFoz
— John Meyer (@thedailywolf) February 14, 2016
Cousins nearly didn’t get out of the first round, losing the handle to start his Round One matchup with Davis before catching up and sinking a triple on his second attempt as Davis struggled to hit. Clearly, he was sandbagging so his next opponents would ease up, but Towns wasn’t biting, putting together a near perfect second round. McCollum, meanwhile, looked plenty comfortable in Round One but lost the handle in Round Two, perhaps thinking ahead to the 3-Point Shootout later tonight, allowing Thomas through to the final.
Round One
C.J. McCollum d. Jordan Clarkson
Isaiah Thomas d. Emmanuel Mudiay
Karl-Anthony Towns d. Draymond Green
DeMarcus Cousins d. Anthony Davis
Round Two
Isaiah Thomas d. C.J. McCollum
Karl-Anthony Towns d. DeMarcus Cousins
Finals
Karl-Anthony Towns d. Isaiah Thomas
Towns joins Beverley, Trey Burke, Damian Lillard (2), Steve Nash (2), Dwyane Wade (2), Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose, Deron Williams, Steve Nash, and Jason Kidd as winners of the event. He also has some serious bragging rights back in Minnseota.
“I’m definitely talking some trash to Ricky Rubio. He doubted me from the beginning,” Towns said afterward.
