NBA All-Star Saturday: Evan Mobley sinks half-court shot to give Cavs win in skills contest

CLEVELAND — Evan Mobley got the hometown crowd fired up early Saturday during the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge — and brought home a trophy in the process. The Cavaliers rookie's half-court shot in the final round earned him and teammates Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland the victory over the "Rooks," a team featuring Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Toronto's Scottie Barnes and Oklahoma City's Josh Giddey. "I felt it when it came off. You could see me. It looked good," Mobley said of his half-court shot. Mobley's impressive shooting got the Cavaliers going early in the competition when he made his first five attempts in the shooting portion, but the way the rookie has been playing all season, his teammates weren't fazed when he stepped to the line and hit a half-court shot 5.5 seconds into the final round. "We discuss this every day," Garland said. "I mean, he is literally a unicorn, 7-footer, 20 years old that can do everything. So, I'm glad to play with him. I'm happy to have him on my team. So I don't have to go against him." Allen agreed and joked that now Mobley really is one of a kind — offensively, defensively and now half-court shooting. "I think the whole league knows Evan by now," Allen said. "If they've ever driven to the paint, they definitely know him, so the NBA should know him by now." In the ongoing debate over who should be this year's NBA rookie of the year, with Mobley and Cunningham commanding much of the conversation, there was no doubt among Allen or Garland who should get the nod — the skills challenge only highlighting what they already know. "He's our rookie of the year," Garland said, with Allen seconding. Also competing in the skills challenge was Team Antetokounmpo, featuring brothers Giannis, Thanasis and Alex. The brothers were eliminated in a tiebreaker when Garland nailed a 3-pointer to send the Cavs to the championship round. Garland struggled from 3-point range during the competition until it mattered most, but he said his confidence never wavered as he followed Thanasis' missed 3-pointer with a no-doubter. "I got two of the best players in the league on my team. Yeah, I had confidence the whole way," he said. What made the victory even better for Garland and his teammates was playing in front of the hometown crowd, which met the Cavs with some of the loudest cheers of the night as they entered the arena. "It was a lot of excitement. The crowd was going crazy," Garland said. "It felt like a home game, to be honest with you. It was good just to have them, just have our support, have our backs throughout the entire little Skills Challenge. It was fun just hearing them when we came out." The skills challenge was revamped this year to include shooting, passing, team relay and half-court shooting portions. The 3-point and slam dunk contests followed. Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns set a record for highest 3-point contest score (29) to edge Luke Kennard (26) and Trae Young (26), but was upset he didn't score even higher. He said after the contest he thought he could've scored into the 30s. "I was so messed up about not getting the 30, I tricked the last two shots," Towns said. "I felt I could have got 31, 32, but I thought 30 was what I was going to need to win in the final round. I already had myself in the final round. 29, I'm happy I was able to scrape by with 29." Knicks forward Obi Toppin capped off the night winning the slam dunk contest. Toppin went with a between-the-legs dunk and finished with a final score of 92 to take home the night's top prize, defeating Golden State's Juan Toscano-Anderson. Contact Marissa McNees at ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on Twitter @MarissaNM.