2016 All-Star Weekend

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Photo Gallery | Crunch In Toronto

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 | KAT Wins Skills Challenge

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Photo Gallery | LaVine Wins Rising Stars MVP

In the land of Drake, it only seemed appropriate that someone (or in this case, some team) went back to back.

That team, of course was the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night in Toronto. Last season, Andrew Wiggins stole the show in Brooklyn on his way to the Rising Stars MVP.

This season, it went to Wiggins’s teammate and good friend, Zach LaVine (despite their minor trash talking going into the game).

“He got it last year, I got it this year,” LaVine said after the game. “We won this year, so I think it came down to whatever team won. So we got the W, and that's the main thing. It got really competitive toward the last five minutes, so we started really playing.”

The Wolves became the first team to have back-to-back Rising Star MVPs since 2002 and 2003 when Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas, respectively, won as members of the Golden State Warriors.

Well first, off, his USA Team beat the World Team, 157-154 (a real defensive battle).

When it comes to awards like the MVP, even in the Rising Stars Game, winning matters.

His statline didn’t hurt either. LaVine finished with a team-high 30 points while shooting 13-for-20 from the field, 2-for-3 from the 3-point line and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. He also added a team-high seven rebounds to go with four assists and a steal.

LaVine was joined by Karl-Anthony Towns on the USA Team. Towns started off slow (just four points in the first half), but heated up in the second half. For the game, Towns finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

“It was awesome,” Towns said when asked about LaVine’s performance. “I am so happy for him and he deserves it."

Wiggins was no slouch either. In fact, had Team World won, Wiggins probably would have won his second straight MVP award. Wiggins was second on Team World with 29 points (Kristaps Porzingis had 30). He shot 13-for-15 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free-throw line while adding five assists and two rebounds.

He was just fine that LaVine is taking the hardware home this time, though.

“I got it last year. He got it this year. KAT's going to get it next year... That's the plan,” Wiggins said.

That all depends if Towns is in the All-Star Game as well, which seems entirely possible.

LaVine’s night concluded with pictures, interviews, a TV spot with NBATV and more.

There’s a good chance he’ll be doing the same thing in about 24 hours.

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The Rising Wolves Strike Again, LaVine Wins MVP

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2016 All‑Star Weekend