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Nothing but Splash: Stephen Curry Wins 3-Point Contest

Established 1946 | 7-time NBA Champions

Ladies and gentleman, we have a new Three-Point Contest Champion, and his name is Stephen Curry. Both Splash Brothers made it to the second and deciding round of Saturday night’s shootout, but Curry absolutely owned the finals, thrilling the New York City crowd with an event-record score of 27.

Curry’s dominant second round was made possible by a stretch of 13-straight makes spanning the third through fifth racks. That was the second longest streak of made shots in event history, behind only Craig Hodges' legendary performance in 1991 (19 straight makes). That followed a separate streak of seven straight makes over the first and second racks. His 27 point-output was 10 more than the second-place finisher Kyrie Irving, who led off the final round with a score of 17.

Klay Thompson led all competitors with a score of 24 in the first round to earn a trip to the finals, but he was faced with following Curry’s gargantuan 27 in the finals, and finished with 14 to take home third place in his first ever appearance in the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest.

Curry’s shootout victory is his first in four career tries, and he had to outlast perhaps the best field in the event’s history. Eight competitors took part in the shootout, including two former champions (Kyrie Irving and Marco Belinelli), this year’s leader in 3-point percentage (Kyle Korver) and a fellow Splash Brother.

In the first round, Curry was the fifth participant up, and his 23 matched Irving for the high up to that point. Curry saved his money rack for last, and he certainly took advantage by hitting four of those five shots. In total, Curry went 15-for-25 in the opening round, and he connected on eight of his nine two-point attempts.