NBA All-Star 2025: Lillard’s shot was made for the 3-point contest
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, the last time the NBA All-Star Game was held in the Bay Area, nine-year-old Damian Lillard was there. Shooting 3s, of course.
With the weeklong jam session festivities taking place in town, Lillard’s father, Houston, allowed him to stay home from school for the week. Among those activities: a 3-point competition for local fans, during which he and his older brother, Houston Jr., reached the championship round.
“It’s definitely a full-circle moment,” said Lillard, the Milwaukee Bucks’ nine-time All-Star and Oakland, California, native of having the event in the Bay Area again. “It was a great week. A lot of memories. Vince Carter won that dunk contest. A lot of my favorite players I grew up watching played in that All-Star Game.”
Now, a quarter century later, Lillard is vying to earn the NBA 3-point contest hardware for a third consecutive year, something only two players (Larry Bird and Craig Hodges) have done.
A third straight win in the event — in the midst of a 3-point revolution — will drive home a point that gets overlooked because of another Bay Area icon: For all the well-deserved attention Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry gets as the greatest shooter ever, there’s a case to be made that Lillard has been the NBA’s king of the deep 3 for several years.
THE 2019 WEST FINALS stage was set for a showdown between the league’s two best sharpshooting point guards.
The matchup didn’t live up to the hype, with Curry’s Warriors sweeping Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers to reach the NBA Finals. Curry undoubtedly outplayed Lillard, outscoring the then-Blazers star 36.5 points per game to 22.3 points on vastly better efficiency.
But between the long shadow created by Curry’s historic postseason success and the sheer volume of his 3-point shooting, there’s a perception that he’s in his own stratosphere when it comes to his long-range efficiency. And that isn’t exactly true.
Yes, Curry has more triples than any player and an NBA-record 14 seasons with at least 150 made 3s. But Lillard’s 12 seasons with that total ranks second all time. And when you zoom out — sometimes close to half court, as his nickname Logo Lillard would suggest — Lillard’s numbers look more favorable from further distances when compared to Curry’s and other counterparts.
Over the past 10 seasons, Lillard has been the league’s most accurate volume shooter from 30-plus feet, connecting on 31.9% of his tries, per Second Spectrum tracking. He’s drilled 240 from that range compared to Curry’s 179. The Golden State star has hit 27.1% from there over the past 10 seasons. (Atlanta Hawks All-Star Trae Young has hit the most 30-footers over the past decade, but he’s also taken far more than any player. And his connection rate, at 30.6%, is a bit beneath Lillard’s in that window.)
Despite his reputation, there are still plenty of times, such as Sunday against the Philadelphia 76ers, where Lillard appears to catch defenses off guard with how far out he’s willing to launch.
Damian Lillard goes off for 43 points to help the Bucks defeat the 76ers.
He had just finished a dominant third quarter, in which he poured in 15 points with four triples. But on the first play of the fourth, the floor general was standing at the edge of the Bucks’ half-court logo, so far out that 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey left him unattended, believing Lillard wouldn’t dare unleash a shot from there.
Maxey was wrong. Lillard momentarily thought about swinging the ball, but then realized how open he was, even if he was a whopping 32 feet away from the hoop. He squared his shoulders, lifted his heels off the center-court logo and let it fly from Oshkosh. Maxey sought to close out but was too late.
The performance — a season-high 43 points with eight 3s without injured superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo — looked a lot like the dominant Portland version of Lillard who once scored 71 in a game.
Milwaukee will desperately need the spacing and offensive production that Lillard’s jump shot creates come playoff time to have any chance of replicating its 2021 championship success.
THE TWO BIGGEST shots of Lillard’s storied career — against the Houston Rockets in the 2014 playoffs and against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2019 postseason — were not only game-winners, but series-winners. In fact, as he sank the iconic 37-footer over then-OKC forward Paul George, Lillard famously waved goodbye to the Oklahoma City players as he sent them packing for the offseason in ice-cold fashion.
Those 3s were made possible by a one-of-a-kind shooting stroke that Lillard has perfected. The most notable thing about the guard’s jump shot: He rests the ball completely on his palm — it causes the ball to briefly lose all contact with his fingertips — before flicking the rock off his fingers and launching it with his right hand.
Oddly enough, he used to utilize his palm only, with no contact whatsoever between his fingertips and the basketball. And when that was the case, he got no real rotation on his shot attempts.
“When I was 10 years old, my dad used to get on my ass, like, ‘You’ve gotta shoot off [of] your fingertips! You shooting a knuckleball!'” Lillard said on JJ Redick’s “The Old Man and The Three” podcast.
“He’s the only other person I’ve ever seen shoot like that. It was so awkward, but he’d do it worse than me; literally just flicking the ball.”
Wednesday, Feb. 12
Spurs at Celtics, 7 p.m.
Warriors at Mavericks, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 21
Knicks at Cavaliers, 7 p.m.
Wolves at Rockets, 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 22
Lakers at Nuggets, 8:30 p.m. (ABC)
Sunday, Feb. 23
Knicks at Celtics, 1 p.m. (ABC)
Mavericks at Warriors, 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
Heat at Bucks, 7 p.m.
Thunder at Wolves, 9:30 p.m.
All times Eastern
As a half measure, Lillard altered his form a bit to what it is now: the jump shot vying for a third straight 3-point contest title.
“I would just roll it off [my fingers],” said Lillard, the seven-time All-NBA selection who won All-Star Game MVP honors last season. “And once you get a certain amount of reps, [you] don’t even really feel it anymore.”
For how unusual his shot might be, there is an incredible amount of consistency within Lillard’s 3-point attempts over the years. One indication of that: The duration of his 3-point shot attempts has held steady for five consecutive seasons, per Second Spectrum. In 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, it took Lillard 0.38 seconds on average to release his shots from the arc. Over the past year and a half, that number has been virtually the same at 0.37 seconds.
That level of year-to-year consistency undoubtedly gives him a leg up in something like the 3-point contest, where having the same form from one shot to the next takes on more importance. And if he wins in San Francisco for a third consecutive time, don’t be surprised: He provided the blueprint in the Bay Area 25 years ago, a shooting form that evolved into one of the most productive in league history.
“I really grew up in the real part of Oakland. I’m from the neighborhood, so I caught the bus with these people every day. I was at the park with these people,” Lillard said. “So to be coming back home at 34 and all of these people really know me, I think that makes me look forward to it a little bit more because they really know I got it out the mud for real.”
ESPN’s Jamal Collier and ESPN Research’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.
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Pistons’ Cade Cunningham eliminated in first-round of Starry 3-point contest
San Francisco — All-Star Saturday Night was a quick experience for the Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham. He was one of eight players who participated in the Starry 3-point Contest at Chase Center in San Francisco.
He scored 16 points during the contest and was second at the time. He trailed the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Darius Garland, who finished the first round with 24. However, the Golden State Warriors’ Buddy Hield eliminated Cunningham with a high of 31.
Despite having a respectable year shooting from behind the arc, Cunningham’s invitation to the shooting contest was a bit surprising. Malik Beasley has taken the helm as Detroit’s best 3-point shooter, given that he is currently second in the league for most made 3-pointers this season with 216.
Although he wasn’t a part of the contest for a second consecutive year, Beasley did give Cunningham advice on what to expect. Beasley participated in the event last season as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks.
“We walked through it a couple of times,” Cunningham said. “He told me words of advice he wished he would have gotten when he was going into it. I think it’s going to help me a lot.”
Cunningham is averaging 25.4 points, 9.4 assists, and 6.3 rebounds and shooting 35% on 3-pointers this season. He will participate in the 74th NBA All-Star Game as part of Kenny’s Young Stars. The Game will be at 8 p.m. Sunday at Chase Center in San Francisco and will be televised on TNT.
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NBA All-Star Weekend is supposed to be fun, right? Stephen Curry reminded fans at his former home in Oakland’s Oracle Arena during practice and media availability on Saturday, swishing a shot that many of us would try but not even come close to making.
While goofing around, Curry hit a no-look backward shot from half-court. Of course, the Golden State Warriors superstar made it look easy, too. And right after former teammate Kevin Durant air-balled his attempt of the same shot.
Curry’s jubilant skip around the court after hitting the fancy trick shot added to the joy of the moment. This man is enjoying his basketball life.
Backwards? One-handed? From halfcourt?
Not a problem for @StephenCurry30 🍳 pic.twitter.com/B0ct5zjUAR
— NBA (@NBA) February 15, 2025
A slightly wider look of the shot shows Damian Lillard attempting to look unimpressed. Maybe he knew he wouldn’t make that circus play. Or perhaps he was focused on Saturday’s 3-Point Contest and winning for the third consecutive year.
Curry, 36, isn’t participating in the contest that he’s won twice. Nor will he compete against New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu in a rematch of their 3-point shootout from last year’s All-Star weekend. Yet as the NBA is looking for more exciting events to boost All-Star festivities, maybe Curry’s dazzling shot reminded the league that bringing back the H-O-R-S-E competition would be fun.
Or would Curry just win a H-O-R-S-E contest every year? He’d probably do so even after retiring as an active player.
A H-O-R-S-E competition was once part of NBA All-Star Weekend, but for only two years. Durant won both of those contests. Yet it hasn’t been part of the festivities since 2010. (Curry was a rookie that season.) NBA players did participate in a virtual H-O-R-S-E contest during 2020 while in quarantine at their homes. Mike Conley Jr. beat Zach LaVine in that challenge, which raised $200,000 for charity.
