The Miami Heat guys go 2/3 on All-Star Saturday night … not bad at all

The Miami Heat presence was a successful one based on the results of All-Star Saturday night. While 3/3 would have been best, 2/3 wasn’t bad at all.

The Miami Heat have had a pretty obvious presence all over All-Star weekend thus far and they have also made their presence known in the individual events that they were participating in. Overall and in a general sense, it’s been a pretty successful weekend for members of the Miami Heat, the individual members that participated in said events, and the Miami Heat brand as a whole.

You also have to include the fact that they sported the league’s most popular jersey by far during their participation, which only can mean that they sold a few extra pieces of apparel last night as well. In any light though, let’s get into the events.

Taco Bell Skills Challenge

Champion- Bam Adebayo

We told you that Bam Adebayo could win the whole thing, didn’t we? Our exact sentiments were that even with the longest odds, he was just as skilled as any other big or small player in the entire tournament.

He started by dismissing Spencer Dinwiddie, the odds on favorite to win the whole thing according to the wise guys. He then completed his second round by discarding Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors.

In the final round, he would send Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers to the showers. Bam jumped out to a clear advantage over the first few legs of the final round, making it back to the final three-point jump shot at least an entire jump shot’s chance before Sabonis did.

They both missed several opportunities before Bam let it go the third time and it dropped. The CHAMP IS HERE! Congratulations to the 2020 Taco Bells Skills Challenge winner, Bam Adebayo!

Mountain Dew 3-point contest

Champion-Buddy Hield

The Mountain Dew 3-point contest was what they call a barn burner! Duncan Robinson or three_bo, as we affectionately call him, was the Miami Heat’s representation in this particular contest. He didn’t shoot awful, but his 19 points weren’t enough to power him through to the next round.

He was competing with Devin Booker who scored 27 points in round one, Davis Bertans who dropped 26 points, and Buddy Hield who also put up a 27 piece. Zach LaVine of the Bulls put up 23 while incumbent Joe Harris dropped 22, but neither totals were enough to advance to the final round.

The final round was pretty epic, with Bertans the Latvian Laser starting the round off with 22. That was respectable until Devin Booker came back with another strong performance of 26 points. It was up to Buddy Hield, who wasn’t able to surpass Booker until his very final shot.

Like a ton of the participants, Hield set his Moneyball rack as his last, which ultimately helped him pull out a one-point victory over Book. Buddy Hield earned it and is your 2020 three-point shooting contest champion.

AT&T Slam Dunk

Champion- Airplane Mode (Derrick Jones Jr.)

The man named after a machine that flys was bound to be the favorite coming into the whole thing, right? Well, he wasn’t and rightfully so with the creative, springy, and gangly Aaron Gordon still in tow to participate.

The other participants did some cute little stuff, such as Dwight Howard‘s re-imagination of his classic Superman dunk with a little Kobe tribute twist. You could even point to Pat Connaughton‘s little tribute to White Men Can’t Jump. The real battle, however, was always between in-state rivals and aerial assault artists, Derrick Jones Jr. and Aaron Gordon.

Moving to tiebreaker rounds, as they both did some insane stuff to get there. When you got to the tiebreaker rounds, Derrick Jones Jr. clearly had a leg-up on Gordon.

For starters, Gordon did a very similar if not identical dunk as Airplane Mode had did in an earlier round, which they wrongly gave a 50 in my opinion. If that wasn’t already bad enough, they also tried to say that he “cleared” Tacko Fall on his final dunk, while also trying to talk Gordon onto a 50 for it.

The judges rightfully gave him a 48 for not completely clearing the 7’5 NBAer, which they better had, after only giving DJJ a 49 for a windmill practically from the free-throw line. It was another great competition, rivaling the Gordon-Zach LaVine showdown and the MJ-Dominique Wilkins one as well.

It was a good sequence of events and competitions, especially if you’re a Miami Heat fan. We would have loved to have done the clean sweep, but you can’t win them all, right?

We have more to look forward to with Jimmy Butler‘s and Bam’s All-Star Game participation on tap. Hopefully, they get in and make a few plays, before quickly getting out without any setbacks, injuries, or knicks. The Miami Heat are right back it on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks.