The energy at the NBA All-Star Weekend was electric, but Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young couldn't translate that buzz into victory during the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest, events where skills and precision take the front seat over pure athleticism.
Young, alongside compadres Tyrese Maxey and Scottie Barnes, kicked things off with an early lead in the Skills Challenge clocking a solid 1:18, per Sports Illustrated, outpacing a trio of first overall picks marred by mishaps including Anthony Edwards' odd choice to shoot his three-pointer with his left hand and Paolo Banchero's blunders. Despite this, Young and his All-Star team succumbed to the Indiana Pacers' Team prowess as Haliburton, Benedict Mathurin, and Myles Turner snatched the first round from them, edging 100 points ahead of Team All-Stars.
In the precision passing challenge that followed, it seemed Young would have his moment, leading the All-Stars to a 74-point finish, a score eventually matched by the Pacers, sending them into a hair-raising tiebreaker reported by Sports Illustrated. However, despite the All-Star team bettering their score to 90, the Pacers once again inched ahead with an impressive 92 points.
The team shooting round had its moments with the All-Stars initially shooting lights out to tie the Pacers at 200 each but it was the Pacers who stole the show: Maxey secured a half-court basket in a grueling 58.8 seconds for Team All-Stars, only to be blown away as Haliburton, playing on his home court with the crowd behind him, netted the decisive halfcourt shot and with it, the title for the Pacers, as chronicled by Sports Illustrated.
Young turned his talents to the 3-Point Contest, hitting a notable 26 in the first round and securing a tiebreaker victory to advance to the finals, details Atlanta News First covered. Young, alongside former champions Karl-Anthony Towns and Damian Lillard, put up a fight scoring 24, but Lillard's final shot crowned him as the repeat 3-point shooting champion, the first since 2007 and 2008, leaving Young and the rest second-guessing what might have been.
