NBA All-Star Saturday night

I haven't seen my parents for a little while so after the Reds snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the rugby, I went round to their place and stayed the night. Other than catching up with them and doing the good son thing, they have Foxtel so I got to watch the NBA All-Star Saturday night.

Saturday's events start with the shooting stars, the skills challenge, the 3-point contest and then the dunk comp. With my focus on basketball shooting, the shooting stars was a warm-up for my favourite event of All-Star weekend, the 3-point contest.

This year's contest was very competitive. Usually someone stinks it up in the opening round but just three points separated first (Stephen Curry) and last place (Channing Frye & defending champ Daequan Cook). Paul Pierce stepped up in the final round to take the title, highlights are below.

The 3-point contest is just over too quickly for my liking. I'd like to see the contestants get 2 attempts in each round and their best score counts. This would mean that if someone stank up one go they could redeem themselves and would take out a little of the luck involved in the contest.

In other events from the night, it was good to see my boy Steve Nash take out the skills challenge and it was no surprise that the Texas team took out the shooting stars challenge. As you'll no doubt read everywhere, the dunk comp was very disappointing. G-Wallace is my boy, but he really phoned this one and just didn't seem interested. Shannon Brown didn't do much better and all the dunks throughout the contest were basically uninspired.

Three-Point Contest finalised

The announcement for who would be competing in the NBA All-Star three-point contest came on the weekend. The big names are Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce, but the contest is so different from game action that it will be interesting to see how the lesser names go and whether or not Daequan Cook can defend his title.

Click on the title below to read the full story and check out last year's contest in the video below.

NBA.com: Talented field aiming for Cook in Three-Point Contest

The call came as a shock to Stephen Curry. Not so much for Channing Frye. Danilo Gallinari expects to win ... even if he doesn't know who exactly he's competing against.

Those three, along with All-Stars veterans Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce, have defending champion Daequan Cook in their sights as the Three-Point Contest returns to its NBA birthplace. The long-distance showcase, a staple of All-Star Saturday Night, debuted 24 years ago in Dallas with Larry Bird claiming the inaugural event at Reunion Arena.

Larry Legend would go on to win the next two years, entrenching the Three-Point Contest as a must-see during All-Star weekend. Cook doesn't come close to Bird's megawatt star power, but the Heat reserve guard is shooting to become the seventh repeat winner in the contest's history. Cook outlasted Rashard Lewis in an overtime round last year in Phoenix.

'It made people look at me different,' Cook said, 'as one of the best 3-point shooters in the game. It made me respected.'

The competitors are ready.

Eddie House, doing what he does best

And what he does best is shoot ...

With Paul Pierce playing limited minutes due to foul trouble, Eddie House stepped up off the bench and delivered some much needed offensive help to Ray Allen and the Boston Celtics.

I've mentioned him a couple of times before on this blog, Eddie House lives and dies on his shooting. When he's on ... look out! Last night was definitely one of those nights.

The only surprise to me from his stat line is that he didn't take more from downtown. Only 4 attempts from deep, I didn't know he ever stepped inside the arc!

Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
E. House		27:35	11-14	4-4	5-6	+9	0	4	2	2	1	0	1	4	31

Ray Allen ... clutch shooting

You know we love Ray Allen from the Boston Celtics, so you just know that I was going to talk about his game-winning heroics in the Philly game yesterday.

I've mentioned before that if you want to learn how to shoot a basketball or if you want basketball shooting tips, as well as spending time on the practice court you need to watch and study the best shooters. And the best shooters deliver when it matters most, when the game is on the line.

For the game, Ray had 23 points, 9 of 18 from the field, including 3 triples and 2 of 2 from the line. But it was what he did in the final minutes of the game that made the difference, check out the footage below of Ray Allen coming through in the clutch.

And one more thing, how about the circus shot Paul Pierce?? John Rillie is proud of his in-game shots for the HORSE challenge, but can he top this one?