Kyle Korver came but could not conquer.
The Hawks sharpshooter was eliminated in the first round of the 3-point contest at NBA All-Star Saturday Night at Barclays Center.
Korver, who leads the NBA in 3-point percentage, finished with a score of 18.
Stephen Curry won the contest with a finals score of 27.
“Bummer, I just never got in a rhythm,” Korver said. “It’s a hard contest to do well in. It really is. It’s not very natural. You shoot a bunch and you sit for an hour and you try to go shoot. I just didn’t find it.”
Korver admitted to being a little mad about the showing.
“No,” Korver said when asked if the competition was fun. “If I don’t win it’s not fun.”
Teammates Al Horford, Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder sat courtside to cheer on Korver. They didn’t immediately offer condolences.
“They didn’t say anything to me because they knew I was mad,” Korver said. “A couple of minutes later, Dennis was like ‘You’re mad, huh?’ I said, ‘A little bit.’ “
Klay Thompson (24), Curry (23) and Kyrie Irving (23) advanced to the finals. Curry was a runaway winner, making 13 straight shots at one point.
Teague rues missed 3-pointers
Teague didn’t miss a layup this time. He missed two 3-pointers. And the Hawks guard in kicking himself for it.
Teague lost in the semifinals of the Skills Challenge to Patrick Beverley. He missed two straight long-range shots and blew a significant lead.
“I blew it,” Teague said with a smile. “I blew it, man. I was posing (on his first attempt). I thought I made it.”
Teague was looking for redemption after he missed a layup in the competition in Houston in 2013.
Teague wasn’t the only one to fall victim to Beverley, who won the title after Kyle Lowry missed two 3-pointers as well.
Teague advanced with a first-round victory over Elfrid Payton.
Dennis Schroder lost his first-round match to Lowry. The Hawks guard had trouble with the pass element of the competition and couldn’t catch up.
Three-peat for Dominique’s team
It’s was a three-peat for Team Bosh in the Shooting Stars Contest. Chris Bosh, Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash twice defended their title in the competition. Wilkins sunk a winning half-court shot to give the trio a finals time of 57.6 seconds. Bosh leaped on Wilkins’ back to celebrate. They defeated Team Westbrook in the finals after the group of Russell Westbrook, Anfernee Hardaway and Tamika Catchings could not make the half-court shot in a maximum time of 1:30.
TNT analyst Kenny Smith said before the competition that rest of the team had carried Wilkins in the past two years.
“I have a message for Kenny,” Wilkins said. “Look at my track record. I didn’t get to 26,000 points on dunks alone. You catch my drift?”
Team Millsap failed to advance to the finals. The group of Hawks forward Paul Millsap, Scottie Pippen and Elena Delle Donne had a time of 51.4 seconds in the preliminary round.
Zach LaVine of the Timberwolves won the Slam Dunk Contest.
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