Evans’ two-ball jam rocks dunk contest; Love wins 3-point tilt

Jojo Doria – AHN Sports Contributor Orlando, FL, United States (AHN Sports) – NBA’s All-Star Saturday festivities were led by Utah Jazz forward Jeremy Evans who dazzled the crowd with his mixing of props and creativity that earned him the fans nod in the dunking tilt. Evans received 29 percent of the fans’ votes for his two-ball dunk over teammate Gordon Hayward in the second round of the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk contest. That dunk ended up winning it all for Evans, who may have saved one of the marquee events of the NBA’s All-Star Saturday festivities, which failed to provide excitement up to that point. Evans, a late addition after the Knicks’ Iman Shumpert dropped out of the event due to injury, made the most of the opportunity as he bested Houston Rockets’ Chase Budinger, Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Williams and Paul George of the Indiana Pacers. All four contestants were first-time participants in the event. Prior to his second dunk, an obvious choice for Dunk of the Night off the bat, Evans dunked with a camera on his head. In his third slam, he donned a jersey of Utah Jazz legend Karl Malone and dunked over mailman-dressed comedian Kevin Hart. Budinger, who dunked over rap-business mogul Diddy on his first attempt, also received a huge reaction from the Amway Center fans when he donned a Cedric Ceballos jersey and imitated the latter’s 1992 blindfolded dunk. In this year’s edition of the Three-Point Shootout, Kevin Love, known for his rebounding and his dominating presence inside the paint for the Timberwolves, showed off his outside touch as he outpointed Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant in the event. Love, who is in the middle of a breakout year for Minnesota, with averages of 25 ppg and 9.9 rpg, battled Durant in a 60-sudden death playoff for the crown, which Love won via a 17-14 score in the final. Also Saturday, San Antonio point guard dominated the Skills Challenge with a time of 32.8 seconds in the final run, which was better than Boston’s Rajon Rondo (34.6) and New Jersey’s Deron Williams (41.4). The Spurs veteran guard was the only…

February 26, 2012Comments OffRead More