NBA All-Star Odds: Slam Dunk, Three-Point and Skills Predictions

The NBA’s All-Star festivities return to Chicago this weekend for the first time since 1988. Here’s a breakdown of the three competitions from the United Center on Saturday night: Skills Challenge, Dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest.

NBA All Star Skills Challenge

The only Toronto Raptors player competing in one of Saturday’s individual competitions is breakout superstar Pascal Siakam in the Skills Challenge. He is one of five players selected for Sunday’s All-Star Game in the eight-man Challenge.

This is a three-round, bracket-style competition. Players compete head-to-head simultaneously in an obstacle course that tests their dribbling, passing and shooting skills. The player in each matchup who finishes fastest advances; but, if say, a player misses one of the shots he can’t move on until he makes it. First-round matchups will be determined on Saturday and the field is generally half guards and half big men.

The Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie won the event in 2018 and is the +300 favourite. The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is next at +400, and the Toronto native is an injury replacement for Detroit’s Derrick Rose. Siakam is +500. Defending champion Jayson Tatum of the Celtics is +600.

No Raptor has won this event, but Canadian Steve Nash did twice while with the Suns.

NBA All Star Slam Dunk Contest

This used to be a bigger deal than the actual All-Star Game. The last time Chicago hosted in 1988, Michael Jordan beat Dominique Wilkins in arguably the greatest dunk competition in NBA history. Players the calibre of Jordan or Wilkins just don’t compete in this any longer and haven’t for years.

The Dunk Contest is two rounds. All four competitors get two “made” dunks in the first round and each player has a maximum of three attempts to complete each. Five judges score every dunk on a scale of 6 to 10, so the high score would be 50. The two players with the highest combined score for the first round then face off in the final round with the same rules.

The biggest-name in this year’s contest is Dwight Howard, but he’s a +500 long shot. Howard once was one of the NBA’s best players but is way past his prime these days. The 34-year-old competed in the Dunk Contest from 2007-09 and won it in ’08.

Orlando’s Aaron Gordon is the +125 favourite and put on quite a show in 2016 in Toronto but finished second to Zach LaVine. Miami’s Derrick Jones Jr. (+200) and Milwaukee’s Pat Connaughton (+400) don’t even start for their respective teams. Jones was a runner-up in 2017.

NBA All Star Three-Point Contest

Larry Bird won this event the last time Chicago hosted, and while many top players also skip this nowadays there are two current All-Stars competing in Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Atlanta’s Trae Young. Booker is replacing Portland’s Damian Lillard in both this contest and Sunday’s game as Lillard was injured Wednesday. Brooklyn’s Joe Harris won last year and is +500 to repeat.

Because so many of the league’s top three-point shooters are now firing and making from 30 feet or so, the league changed the rules this year. It used to be five stations of five balls each around the arc with players having 60 seconds to finish. The NBA added 10 seconds and two more shots from six feet behind the arc with both of those shots worth three points each.

The majority of balls at the regular stations are worth one point. There’s a fifth ball at four of the five called a “money ball” worth two points. And there’s one station that is “money ball” only. The maximum score is now 40.  The players with the three highest scores will advance to the championship round.

NBA All-Star Predictions

Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton (+600) in Skills, Orlando’s Gordon (+125) in the Dunk Contest, and Washington’s Davis Bertans (+500) in the Three-Point Contest