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Slam Dunk, 3-Point Contest, Skills Challenge: NBA All-Star Saturday 2023 how to watch, TV, format, players

Yahoo Sports Staff
·6 min read
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SALT LAKE CITY — The 2023 NBA All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City continues with All-Star Saturday Night contests — starting with the Skills Challenge, then the 3-Point Contest and finishing with the Slam Dunk contest — on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. All three events will be televised on TNT. Below are all the participants, rules of the events and how each will be scored should a tiebreaker be needed.

FOLLOW LIVE: Yahoo Sports is in Salt Lake City and will bring you live coverage of everything from Saturday night.

How to watch NBA All-Star Saturday night events

When: 8 p.m. ET Saturday

Where: Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City

What: The three competitions will be held in this order: Skills Challenge, 3-Point Contest and Slam Dunk

TV: TNT

How the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge works

The Skills Challenge consists of three teams, with three players each, and is three rounds: relay, passing and shooting. The winning team for each round will receive challenge points, and the team with the most challenge points after the three rounds will be the winner.

Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo will compete with his brothers in the NBA All-Star Saturday Skills Challenge. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)

Skills Challenge teams and players

In the team relay, each player completes a course that includes a 35-foot outlet pass at a moving target from the baseline, dribble through moving targets, make a short layup, a left corner 3-pointer, dribble back down the court and make a basket. It is timed, the second and third teams must beat the previous top time. The team with the fastest time earns 100 challenge points. In the event of a tiebreaker, teams will choose which player to run the course again. If there is a second tie, a different player will complete the course again.

The second round is team passing where all three players compete at same time. In a 30-second time limit, the team must make at least one pass attempt at each target and cannot attempt consecutive passes at the same target. The different targets have various points attached to them. The team with the most points earns 100 challenge points. In the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker is total number of passes made, second tiebreaker is number of chest passes made and third is total number of outlet passes made.

The third and final round is team shooting with each player on one team competing together with one ball. Each team gets 60 seconds to score as many points as possible shooting from five locations on the court that count for different point amounts. Each team starts from the fifth spot (right slot 30-foot deep 3-pointer) and each player must attempt at least one shot. Then, players must alternate shot locations and cannot shoot from the same spot consecutively. The team with the highest score earns 200 challenge points. In the case of a tie, the teams will choose one player to shoot from the fifth spot and if the player makes the shot, he will be given an additional attempt. If no players from the tied teams make a shot, everyone will be given an additional attempt until the last player to make a shot wins the tiebreaker.

If teams are tied in challenge points after the three competitions, the tied teams will attempt half-court shots with all three players competing. The first team will attempt shots until one is made or 1:30 time elapses. The second team will have to beat the first team's time. If there is still a tie, the round will be repeated.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will compete in the 3-Point Contest at the 2023 NBA All-Star Saturday competitions in Salt Lake City. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)

How the NBA All-Star 3-Point Contest works

There are five ball racks around the 3-point arc. Four racks have four normal game balls worth 1 point apiece for made buckets and one money ball worth 2 points for a made bucket. The money ball must be shot last in the rack.

The fifth rack will be all money balls worth 2 points apiece for made buckets. Each player decides where on the arc the money ball rack will be placed.

There will also be two ball pedestals with one ball apiece at "Starry Range" between racks 2 and 3 and racks 3-4 for deep shots. Those are worth 3 points apiece for made buckets.

Players must shoot every ball in a rack before moving to the next location. There are a total of 27 balls that can be shot and a time limit of 70 seconds to shoot them all. The three players with the highest score after the first round advance to the championship round. If there is a tie, a 30-second competition will be held using the same format as the original round and will be repeated until the tie is broken.

In the championship round, the player with the lowest score will shoot first. The player with the highest score will win. If there is a tie, a 70-second round will happen and be repeated until there is a winner.

3-Point Contest players:

Note: Randle replaces Portland's Anfernee Simons, who is out with a right ankle sprain.

Trey Murphy III, of the New Orleans Pelicans, dunks during an NBA Rising Stars semifinal basketball game on Feb. 17, 2023, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

How the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest works

There are two rounds in the dunk contests with five judges — Jamal Crawford, Lisa Leslie, Karl Malone, Harold Miner and Dominique Wilkins — scoring each dunk. The average of the five will be the individual dunk score.

Each player will get two dunk scores over two rounds. Each is given 1:30 and one additional try to complete one dunk. They are limited to three attempts, which counts as the player controlling the basketball while airborne and moving toward the rim. A try is any action taken in an effort to attempt a dunk. A referee judges whether an attempt counts as a made or missed dunk.

The two players with the highest composite scores between their first and second dunks advance to the final round. If there is a tie, the players who advance will be determined by judges' choice. The two players who advance will then have two dunks in the final round and will have the same rules as the previous round.

If there is a tie in the final round, a one-dunk dunk-off will be held. Each player will have one attempt. If tied after that, the winner is determined by judges' choice with the judges raising a card with the player's name.

Slam Dunk participants:

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