Needing to sink the last two balls off his final rack, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors did just that to win the MTN DEW® 3-Point Contest Sunday prior to the 2021 NBA All-Star Game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Curry finished with 28 points in the contest’s final round, beating Utah guard Mike Conley by one point. For Curry, who leads the NBA this season with 169 3-pointers made, the clutch performance gave him his second 3-Point crown in the 35th All-Star weekend contest.
cclaimed as arguably the best shooter in NBA history, Curry — who posted the event’s top score Sunday with 31 in the opening round and sank three of the four “Dew Zone” deep 3-balls he shot — also won in 2015. He becomes just the seventh player to win the contest multiple times, and the first to do so since Jason Kapono (2007-08).
Conley, shooting 42.2% from the arc in the regular season, was participating for the first time. He was a late-addition injury replacement both in the contest and in the All-Star Game for Phoenix’s Devin Booker, who suffered a knee injury last week. Conley made Curry work by boosting his final round score to 27 with a sweep of his final rack.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum, participating for the first time, advanced to the second round but fell short with 17. Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown, Chicago’s Zach LaVine and Jazz wing Donovan Mitchell all were eliminated in the first round. LaVine and Mitchell were trying to become the first former AT&T Slam Dunk contest winner to also win the 3-Point Contest.
