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NBA All-Star 2020 Saturday Night: Preview, start time, and more

The NBA All-Star Weekend festivities continue tonight as the skills challenge (featuring the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam!) three-point shootout, and dunk contest tip-off at 8pm.

By Sully Akbari
NBA: Atlanta Hawks at Toronto Raptors Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

It’s day two of NBA All-Star Weekend as Saturday night festivities will get underway tonight in Chicago. The three events include the Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest, and Dunk Contest. This year, only one Raptor will be participating in Saturday’s festivities: Pascal Siakam. He’ll be looking to use all of his basketball talents — and live up to his P-Skills nickname — to win in the Skills Challenge.

Below is a preview of each event and the players participating in it.

Where to Watch:

Sportsnet One and TNT at 8 p.m.

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Taco Bell Skills Challenge

The Skills Challenge will be the first event to kick-off Saturday’s festivities. After not making it last year, Toronto Raptors’ Pascal Siakam will get a chance to compete — and as we can all guess: he’s got a good shot in winning. P-Skills has all the tools needed to thrive in this competition — his ball-handling, passing, shot-making, and speed are truly exceptional.

The event will also bring back three previous winners from this competition — last year’s winner, Jayson Tatum, 2018’s winner Spencer Dinwiddie, and the 2015 winner Patrick Beverley. This should hold up to be a great event, and not just because Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be replacing Derrick Rose after he pulled out of the event due to injury.

Here are the eight participants for this year’s competition:

22.4 PPG | 2.9 AST | 44.3 FG% | 38.2 3PT%

  • Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn Nets — 2018 Skills Challenge winner

21.0 PPG | 6.6 AST | 41.7 FG% | 30.9 3PT%

  • Patrick Beverley, L.A. Clippers — 2015 Skills Challenge winner

8.5 PPG | 4.0 AST | 43.0 FG% | 36.4 3PT%

19.5 PPG | 3.2 AST | 46. FG% | 35.0 3PT%

  • Pascal Siakam, Toronto Raptors

23.5 PPG | 2.9 AST | 45.8 FG% | 36.2 3PT%

15.8 PPG | 4.9 AST | 57.9 FG% | 9.1 3PT%

20.4 PPG | 4.3 AST | 50.1 FG% | 43.8 3PT%

18.3 PPG | 4.8 AST | 54.1 FG% | 22.4 3PT%

Rules: Barring any changes, the event is run in a head-to-head match-up style with players competing against each other across a two-sided bracket (split loosely between front and backcourt players). The players must go through the obstacle course in which their ball-handling, passing, shooting skills, and speed are put to the test. The winner from each side of their 4-man bracket meets in the championship round to determine the winner.

Here is last year’s skills challenge:

Mtn Dew 3-Point Contest

The night’s second event is the classic 3-Point Contest. This year’s contest is a little different. There are still five traditional shooting stations that contain five balls — four regular stations and one multi-coloured “money-ball” station, where each ball is worth two points. However, there will be two “MTN DEW Zone” shooting stations that contain only one green ball and are worth three points. Those two stations are six feet past the three-point line and are in between the right-wing/left-wing and the centre station.

There will be 27 balls in total and players will have 70 seconds this time around to hit as many threes they can. The highest score possible a player can get is 40. The three players with the highest scores in the first round will advance to the championship round. The player with the highest score in the championship round will be determined as the winner.

Joe Harris will get to defend his title against nine other competitors but it won’t be easy repeating considering the other sharpshooters in the field. Damian Lillard was supposed to be competiting but he pulled out due to an injury and was replaced by 2018 three-point contest winner, Devin Booker.

Here are the 10 shooters in the competition:

  • Joe Harris, Brooklyn Nets — 2019 3-Point Contest winner

13.8 PPG | 40.8 3PT% | 126 3PM | 309 3PA

26.4 PPG | 35.8 3PT% | 101 3PM | 282 3PA

25.3 PPG | 38.5 3PT% | 168 3PM | 436 3PA

29.7 PPG | 36.9 3PT% | 173 3PM | 469 3PA

18.1 PPG | 37.4 3PT% | 190 3PM | 508 3PA

20.4 PPG | 38.5 3PT% | 207 3PM | 537 3PA

  • Duncan Robinson, Miami Heat

12.6 PPG | 43.8 3PT% | 191 3PM | 436 3PA

15.0 PPG | 42.4 3PT% | 156 3PM | 368 3PA

Here is last year’s three-point contest:

AT&T Slam Dunk Contest

The third and final event of the evening is the Slam Dunk Contest. Returning to the competition for the third time and placing in second in both appearances is Aaron Gordon. He’s joined by Derrick Jones Jr., in his second appearance, and — whoa — 2008 dunk contest winner Dwight Howard. Pat Connaughton is the only new face in the contest.

Here are the four dunkers:

Aaron Gordon, Orlando Magic — 14.2 PPG | 71 dunks made out of 77

Dwight Howard, L.A. Lakers — 7.8 PPG | 100 dunks made out of 104

Derrick Jones Jr., Miami Heat — 8.7 PPG | 56 dunks made out of 65

Pat Connaughton, Milwaukee Bucks — 4.9 PPG | 23 dunks made out of 24

Rules: The contest is comprised of two rounds with each of the four dunkers having two dunk attempts in each round. The dunkers have three attempts to successfully complete a dunk. The five judges scoring each player’s dunk are retired NBA players Dwyane Wade, Scottie Pippen, L.A. Sparks’ Candace Parker, Chicago-native and rapper Common, and actor Chadwick Boseman.

The judges will score each dunk from as low as six points to as high as 10. The lowest possible score a player can get is 30 and the highest being 50. In the event of a tie in either the first or championship round, a dunk-off will occur where the dunkers will have one dunk attempt to achieve the highest score. The two dunkers with the highest point total from their two dunks will advance to the championship round. The player with the highest total in the championship round will be crowned champion.

Here is last year’s dunk contest:

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