2016 All-Star Game

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Photo Gallery | Crunch In Toronto

Good morning. You're probably not up at this time. And if you are, you're probably Jeff Munneke. I'm convinced Munn doesn't sleep. 

I took an Uber to the airport. After feeling alert for 10 minutes after the Uber picked me up, I now feel like I could sleep on a McDonald's bathroom floor.

What a win last night for the Wolves. After the first half, it looked like it was going to be one of those games. But it wasn't. Well, not in a negative way at least. Karl-Anthony Towns was a machine and it was nice to see the team upset the Raptors a day before the All-Star Break. For a young team, it would have been easy to give up. But they didn't. Good for them.

We have a great crew here as far as content goes - two from our broadcast team and a very good looking web reporter (OK. Average looking).

Today's plan is to get to Toronto. After that, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine will have their media tour early this afternoon. This lasts about 45 minutes and it includes pictures, interviews and commercials. They cram everything they possibly can into this 45 minutes. After that, Towns will have his media tour. 

I'm waiting to get on the plane now. Do I get a coffee? Do I get a Red Bull? Do I fall asleep on this odd man's shoulder next to me? I don't know.

It's going to be a fun and busy weekend for the Wolves in Toronto. 

Make sure to follow all the action by following us on Twitter:

That's about all I've got for right now. I'm not sure when I'll be checking back in. From the media tours today, expect a photo gallery, some videos and maybe a quick write-up.

So, it’s really cold outside, but luckily, everything is really close (unlike last year in New York).

I don’t have a whole lot to report. Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins finished up their media tour, which lasted about 45 minutes to an hour long. Karl-Anthony Towns will be doing his tour a bit later today.

That’s it for now. I’ll check in after KAT’s media tour if there’s anything worthwhile. Make sure to check out everything else we've got on the site. Timberwolves.com is your spot for all Timberwolves-related All-Star content. 

Sorry on the delay of this post. I know you’ve been waiting all day for this post. If that’s actually the case, well, you are having a pretty chill Friday.

The Rising Stars had their practice. That includes Zach LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns of the USA Team and Andrew Wiggins of the World Team.

The main event today was the All-Star Media Availability. It’s kind of a mess, but it’s a chance to talk to all of the All-Stars, that is if you get a question in.

Plans for the rest of the day? Well, we get a slight break before taking off for the Rising Stars Challenge around 5 p.m. The game doesn’t start until 9, but we are going to try to get settled. Hopefully this turns into some behind-the-scenes stuff. We’ll see.

Until then, I’m going to go for a bit of a run. I accidentally just ate a whole bag of trail mix and I’m not full, so that’s kind of concerning.

We’ve got plenty of content already up on the site. Our broadcast team has done a great job per usual.

At some point today, I’ll be posting a Q&amp;A with Milt Newton and our web associate Todd Barin will be previewing tonight’s Rising Stars Game. After that, expect plenty of content revolving around tonight’s game. Until then, go eat some trail mix. 

Not much to report that you don't already know. Zach LaVine won the Rising Stars MVP. When you think about the fact that he's probably the favorite for the Slam Dunk Contest for tomorrow, well, this could be a very busy weekend for LaVine.

It's also been a busy night for our content crew. Plenty of good stuff coming on the site. Just not right now. Because it's 1:18 a.m. and I want to sleep. I'll talk to you cats bright and early.

It looks like the Wolves have taken over All-Star Weekend again, which means late nights for everyone. Which is a good thing. It means these guys are doing a great job in representing the team. It also means that I’m so cool with hotel coffee right now even if it tastes kind of moldy.

I won’t recap last night’s game, because I already did.

A shameless plug. I chatted with Zach Harper of CBS Sports yesterday about the Timberwolves in Toronto. As always, Harper was great. Some humor mixed with actual basketball intelligence. Please listen if you haven’t already.

So, what’s cracking for today, you ask?

I’ve already hopped on the elliptical to watch “Jessica Jones,” so you could say today is off to a great start. I’m drinking hotel coffee right now, which again, mold.

Shortly, I’ll be heading to the Special Olympics Unified Game at the Enercare Center. Towns will be coaching the game. Lindsay Whalen will be there at 4 for a Special Olympics event as well, so we plan on chatting with her. You can probably expect a podcast later today or tomorrow (our day off, kind of). If you don’t know, Whalen is one of the coolest people around. It should be fun.

And after that, tonight’s madness begins. We’ll get to All-Star Saturday Night around 5:45 p.m. All-Star Saturday Night starts at 7 p.m. CST. The Skills Competition will begin right away. Towns will face off in the first round against Draymond Green. Remember, there are bigs and guards in this contest, so it should be interesting and could turn ugly. The biggest thing for the big guys will be the pass.

After that, LaVine will be defending his Slam Dunk title. You’ve got to think he’s the overwhelming favorite, but watch out for Aaron Gordon. Everyone I’ve talked to said the guy is dangerous. We’ll see.

Also, it’s -9 degrees here. I never thought I’d say I miss Minnesota weather. 

What a freaking weekend it was for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Last night was incredible. I’ve already wrote about Towns winning the Skills Competition and LaVine winning the Dunk Contest, but I’ll try to give you a few behind-the-scenes takes in this post.

First, Towns shocked the basketball world and won the Taco Bell Skills Competition as a big man. In practice earlier that morning, Towns struggled making the pass through the hoop. That was a problem in the first round against Draymond Green. Towns told me that his plan if we missed his first one was to just get two passes off as soon as he could. If you miss three passes, you move on by default. That’s exactly what he did.

KAT’s dad spoke to us after the event and told us how big this was for big men everywhere. Sure, it was just a Skills Competition, but nobody gave the big guys a chance. Towns, a 20-year-old rooke (!), flipped the script. If I had to guess, there’s a good chance he’ll defend his title next year in Charlotte. The question is, will he be an All-Star or in the Rising Stars Challenge?

And to the Dunk Contest. What in the Narnia just happened? I was sitting by the social media coordinator for the Golden State Warriors and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. LaVine was great, but so was Aaron Gordon. It was easily one of the greatest things I’ve seen in person. I actually can’t think of something that rivals it right now. I’m not a huge fan of props during the contest, but the mascot was on a freaking hoverboard? WHAT IS REAL LIFE?

With the win, that’s two-in-a-row for LaVine. Will he attempt to make it three?

I have no idea, but it will be tough. LaVine said that he emptied out his bag and then some last night. What else can the guy do? I’ve never dunked a basketball in my life. The only trick I could do growing up was dribbling the ball through my legs (while lifting one of my legs up). But I would imagine it’s pretty difficult to just create a dunk, especially, you know, when you’re an NBA player who plays in 82-plus games per season.

There’s nothing wrong with going out on top after back-to-back titles.

LaVine’s photoshoot went about 20 minutes longer than most. He got every single member of his family involved, plus his agents and others in his inner circle. You can’t blame him. What an unbelievable moment for him. As our boy Drake would say, “What a time to be alive.”

I woke up a little later than I would have liked and I still feel like I could sleep six more hours.

I’ll be doing some catchup work here, posting videos and what not. This also marks the third year away from my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. GO BASKETBALL!

I also have to make my way to the gift shop. My friend asked me to pick him up an All-Star koozie, which is pretty much perfect if you knew him.

I’ll check back in later this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

It’s been a great time spending this weekend with you guys. Thanks so much for reading.

Not a whole lot to report this morning. I’m currently waiting to check out of my hotel. I’m going to get a huge coffee and that will be that for Toronto. What a weekend it’s been, though, eh?

For site content, here’s what you can expect in the next few days:

This post was kind of useless. Whatever. I just wanted to check in. Missed you guys.

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Ratke On The Road | Off To Toronto

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2016 All-Star Photo Gallery | Ratke On The Road

After Saturday night’s Slam Dunk Contest, Zach LaVine did another thing deserving of applause. He dedicated his win to the late Flip Saunders. He even posted a customized jersey for Saunders on Instagram.

The legacy of Saunders has been carried through these Wolves and it’s no doubt that he would have been incredibly proud of what they have accomplished over All-Star Weekend in Toronto.

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LaVine Dedicates Dunk Contest Championship To Flip Saunders

Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon took the basketball world by storm on Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. There had to be a winner and it seemed like a shame only one could win. LaVine even suggested that there be two trophies.

But fortunately for LaVine, Timberwolves fans and Drake lyrics, the high-flier out of UCLA went back-to-back, winning his second straight Slam Dunk Contest.

And it wasn’t just a Slam Dunk Contest. It will probably be something those in attendance or those who watched it on television tell their children and their children’s children. When it comes to Slam Dunk Contests, it was one of the bests.

“Yeah, and I don't want to get into -- everybody's probably going to say something about Mike and all them and Dr. J,” LaVine said. “But in my personal opinion, man, we did some things that nobody else did."

We could go through dunk-by-dunk, but there’s no way we’d be doing them justice. There will be videos for that and you can bet our broadcast team is on that as I type this.

Until then, what you need to know about Saturday night’s dunk contest.

Will Barton and Andre Drummond were eliminated and did not qualify for the final round. Barton went out swinging, attempted a reverse, 360-dunk. Drummond, who already had the challenge of being so big, didn’t wow the crowd. Steve Nash tried to help him out with a soccer kick alley-oop, but the two just weren’t on the same page.

That led us into LaVine and Gordon. Easy enough.

Well, not exactly. The two put on a show. And for once, the millennials in the crowd probably put down their phones and stopped wondering if someone wast texting. It was all eyes on the court.

The final round was supposed to go two dunks per dunker. But both players hit 50 on their first two dunks. And their third. So, ummm. Now what? That’s exactly what the two thought. They had prepared, but not for six dunks…

“I was prepared for four. To tell the truth, he came with something that no one else has done,” LaVine said. “He did two dunks that were just crazy with the mascots, jumping over them. We just kept pushing each other until the last dunk.”

Gordon scored a 47 on his fourth dunk, while LaVine scored a 50, although they both could have easily been 50s.

In a league without LaVine, Gordon is probably the champion. He used his mascot, a hoverboard and crazy athleticism.

“You could see as my facial expressions when Zach dunks it, it's like okay, that's a 50,” Gordon said. “Like I know we're going to have to dunk again.”

LaVine stuck to the old-school vibes, and just made everything look incredibly easy - something both Gordon and Barton praised him for earlier this week.

Now LaVine has two Slam Dunk titles. He’s 20 years old. And he just won the Rising Stars MVP on Friday night. So where does that put him in history?

He became the fourth player to repeat as champion. He’s the first player since Jason Richardson in 2002 to win both the Rising Stars MVP and the Dunk Contest.

“You know at such a young age, I feel like I'm on the right path,” LaVine said. “Just try to keep getting better and better and keep accomplishing things that are instilled in me and my goals.”

Will LaVine go for No. 3 next season? It’s probably too early to ask that, but if he does, he’ll have to come with a new bag of tricks. But if anyone can do it, it’s him.

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Back-To-Back | LaVine Does It Again

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Photo Gallery | LaVine Wins Back-To-Back Slam Dunk Titles

When the NBA introduced big men into the mix for this year’s Taco Bell Skills Challenge, many thought it was a nice gesture. Big men are changing in this league, but they couldn’t possibly beat guards at their own game, right?

Karl-Anthony Towns won the Minnesota Timberwolves’ second trophy of the weekend by winning the 2016 Skills Challenge on Saturday night in Toronto.

His first matchup came against Golden State’s Draymond Green, one of the best running big men in the league. Towns got off to a rough start, missing his passes. Green looked to have the edge, but missed his first two 3-pointers. Towns missed his first, but nailed his second to advance to the second round.

In the second round, Towns went up against DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings. This time, Towns was perfect. He beat Boogie up the court, hit his first shot and nailed his first 3-pointer. Easy, breezy. Or so he made it seem.

Towns noted after that despite his calm demeanor, he was actually very nervous going into the event. One thing that calmed him down, though, was a teammate who has been mentoring him all season long.

“It's funny, the one thing I remember right before I got nervous was [Kevin Garnett] teaching just to breathe,” Towns said. “He taught me how to breathe a certain way. While I was nervous, I was a lot less nervous because of that breathing technique he taught me. I just went out there and tried to do my best."

His final matchup came against speedy point guard Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics. Both players were neck-and-neck after both hitting the first pass. The two went in the air simutalously and Thomas was able to make the layup first, but Towns actually beat Thomas down to the 3-point line. Towns missed his first 3-pointer, but the time he earned himself didn’t hurt as he was able to nail the fourth, clinching his first All-Star trophy and the first Skills Competition trophy for big men everywhere.

“The bigs were amazing today, and we were able to just come out with a W, and I'm glad I was able to help the bigs come out with this trophy,” Towns said. “This is bigger than me. This is for all the bigs out there, with the game changing the way it is, to show that bigs can stand up with guards and skillwise.”

Perhaps this truly is a changing of the guard… into the big man.

"This is a moment that hopefully the NBA can cherish for a long time to see the transition of guards and bigs only having to be on the post, but also can be outside dribbling the ball, dribble up the court and shoot threes. So I think this moment was much bigger than myself, but it shows that bigs are translating into a new facet of their games."

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Stepping Up For The Big Men, Towns Wins Skills Challenge

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Photo Gallery | LaVine Wins Rising Stars MVP

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2016 All‑Star Game