Clips' Griffin wins Slam Dunk title and Heat's James Jones takes 3-point crown - James Jones and Blake Griffin prevailed Saturday night in the two most anticipated side events during All-Star Weekend at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Jones, a Miami Heat swingman reserve, won the 3-point competition while Griffin, a rookie forward from the Los ngeles Clippers, won the Slam Dunk competition. Shooting between two of the greatest players of all-time, Jones stole the spotlight, outgunning Boston Celtics teammates Ray Allen and Paul Pierce in the finals. Jones scored 20 points in the final round, outpointing Pierce by two and Allen by five.
The three advanced to the final round after outpointing Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, Memphis' Dorell Wright and Daniel Gibson of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the preliminary round. In the dunk contest, Washington center JaVale McGee recorded two perfect rounds of 50 in the preliminary round. He dunked balls left- and right-handed on two side-by-side baskets in the first round and came in from the left baseline holding two balls, dunking both while slamming home an alley-oop pass from teammate John Wall with a third ball. Griffiin scored 49 points on a thunderous 360-degree tomahawk dunk and a 46 after taking a pass from teammate Baron Davis off the side of the backboard and jamming it home. That was enough to eliminate Toronto Raptors' DeMar DeRozan (94) and Oklahoma City's Sege Ibaka (90) in the opening round.
In the finals, where fan vote decided the winner, Griffin converted a flying, cupped dunk in which he got most of his arm in the rim. McGee jammed home a reverse jam while his body was moving away from the basket. For Griffin's final dunk, he jumped over a car, took an alley-oop from Davis through the the sun roof and jammed it home. McGee ran in from the top of the key, tossed the ball off the backboard and slammed it in.
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