N.Y.’s Robinson slams Howard

Phoenix —- Call him Krypto-Nate.

Diminutive New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson beat defending champion Dwight Howard of Orlando in the All-Star slam dunk contest Saturday night, winning 52 percent of fans’ votes.

Clad in an all-green Knicks uniform with green shoes, Robinson used Howard as a prop in the final round, springboarding over the 6-foot-11 center to jam.

“Dwight was a great sport letting me dunk over him,” said the 5-foot-9 Robinson, who also won in 2006.

Howard, who scored a perfect 50 on both of his first-round dunks, performed the most theatrical dunk of the night in the first round.

The former Atlanta high school star disappeared into a phone booth just off the court, emerging with a Superman cape. Howard waved to the crowd as an 11-foot basket was wheeled onto the floor. Howard took a bounce pass from teammate Jameer Nelson and tomahawked a dunk as fans in the U.S. Airways Center roared.

In other events, Miami’s Daequan Cook needed overtime to edge Orlando’s Rashard Lewis in the 3-point shootout, while the Hawks’ Mike Bibby was eliminated in the first round. Two-time champion Jason Kapono of Toronto came up one point short in the second round.

Kevin Durant won an outdoor H-O-R-S-E competition at the Block Party across the street from U.S. Airways Center. The Oklahoma City star beat Memphis’ O.J. Mayo and Atlanta’s Joe Johnson.

Chicago’s Derrick Rose capped his Skills Challenge victory night with a double-pump reverse dunk.

Rose defeated New Jersey’s Devin Harris in the final round, navigating the obstacle course of dribbling, passing and shooting stations in 35.3 seconds, 4.4 seconds faster than Harris.

Detroit —- Pistons guard Arron Afflalo, ex-Piston Bill Laimbeer and Detroit Shock star Katie Smith —- won the Shooting Stars competition, which featured a player from an NBA team, a retired player from that team and a player from that city’s WNBA club.

In other news Saturday:

> Commissioner David Stern said the financial crisis makes growth difficult, but the league is holding steady. “I have been concerned for 25 years, and so I always worry about everything,” Stern said. “But … we are going to maintain our attendance and our revenues.”

> Stern said the NBA finals’ Sunday night games would begin at 8 p.m. EST, an hour earlier than other start times. “It is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes,” he said.

> The league announced that the NBA finals MVP award will be named after Hall of Famer Bill Russell.