Team Cavs wins the 2022 NBA Al-Star Taco Bells Skills Challenge, downing Team Rooks in front of a friendly crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse after surviving a tiebreaker to advance to the finals.
Comprised of Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley, the Cavaliers’ trio defeated Team Rooks, led by Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey, and Scottie Barnes in a half-court shootout that decided the final round.
Shooting one at a time as outlined in the rules, Team Rooks set the pace to start the round by knocking down its first half-court shot in just 9.9 seconds That meant Team Cavs would need to make its first half-court shot within that timeframe.
Team Cavs nearly cut that in half, with Mobley splashing the squad’s second attempt with 5.5 seconds left on the clock. The bucket lifted Team Cavs to the 2022 Taco Bells Skills Challenge crown, but it needed to outlast Team Antetokounmpos (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo and Thanasis Antetokounmpo) just to get there.
Team Rooks set the early benchmark
In the previous round, Team Rooks won the Team Relay and 200 accompanying challenge points with a time of 1:18.5 in a competition that featured a course targeting five different skillsets.
Team Antetokounmpos and Team Cavs failed to finish the course within the time established by Team Rooks, thus forcing them into a tiebreaker to determine which team would advance to the final round. In the tiebreaker, each team picked one player to shoot 3-pointers from the top of the key.
Giannis Antetokounmpo missed his team’s first shot, while Garland swished his attempt to send Team Cavs to the finals.
The previous round — Team Passing — also led to a tiebreaker between Team Rooks and Team Antetokounmpos. Officials broke that tie by determining Team Antetokounmpos completed more outlet passes than Team Rooks, and the former received 100 challenge points for that round.
Team Cavs established dominance from the very start in the Team Shooting portion of the competition. Garland racked up 21 points to outpace all of Team Antetokounmpos (20 points), as Team Cavs started with 44 points, followed by Team Rooks (32 points).
The NBA switched up the format for the 2022 Taco Bell Skills Challenge, making it more of a team competition than individual affair. That change also heightened drama in the latter rounds by producing tiebreaking scenarios.
