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.

Chauncey Billups - Mr Big Shot

Watching Chauncey Billups in action last night its not hard to see why they call him Mr Big Shot. Billups exploded for a career high 39 points including 9 from downtown.

Here's his stat line:

Denver

Starters

Min

FG

3Pt

FT

+/-

Off

Reb

Ast

TO

Stl

BS

BA

PF

Pts

C. Billups

G

40:26

12-20

9-13

6-8

+13

0

4

8

2

1

0

1

1

39

Here are some of the highlights from the game:



Despite playing against the top team in the west, when Billups is rolling like that ... no Melo, no worries.

Elsewhere in the bball blogosphere

Its been a slow month for me as far as blogging by the looks of it. I really don't like April, its a very slow month as far as business goes and there are just so many public holidays that effect things.

Anyway, here's a quick look around the blogosphere to see what's going on:

1. John Rillie has now written back-to-back posts about my mate JVG (Jeff Van Groningen) and his ties with Eddie Groves and the Adelaide 36ers. Here's the first and here's the follow-up. Nice to see JR also giving up love to The Machine earlier in the week.
   
   
2. Congratulations to one of my idol's, Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA) for chalking up 5 years of blogging. Here is his post marking the achievement and some of his favourite and most popular stories during that time. I have really enjoyed his "success & motivation" series of posts and reading about his early years in business.
   
   
3. With all the love that Mr Bigshot, Chauncey Billups has been getting for his performance in the first round against CP3 and the Hornets, it was only a matter of time before someone compared Billups to AI's playoff performance this season. Dime give their thoughts on it here.

And one final NBA note from today, Adam (my colleague) was watching Dr Phill at lunch today and the topic was about "Deadbeat Dads" and the dad in question on the show was ex-NBA player Jason Caffey. My friends and I used to pay out on Shawn Kemp for fathering 7 kids to 6 different women, it seems Caffey has taken it one step further with 10 kids to 8 different women.

Chauncey, showing why they call him Mr Bigshot