Utah's Evans soars to slam-dunk victory

Utah's Jeremy Evans won the slam dunk contest at the NBA's All-Star Saturday night festivities in Orlando.

Evans, who got into the competition as a replacement for injured New York guard Iman Shumpert, earned 29 percent of three million text message votes cast by fans.

This was the first year that fans had total control of voting.

Evans earned the win over Houston's Chase Budinger, Indiana's Paul George, and Minnesota's Derrick Williams.

Evans dunked with a camera on his head, dunked two basketballs while jumping over a seated assistant, and then donned a Karl Malone jersey while dunking over mailman-dressed comedian Kevin Hart.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love bested Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant in a tiebreaker to win the three-point-shooting contest.

Love, a prototypical "stretch 4" and the NBA's defending rebounding champ, scored 17 points in the final tiebreaker, beating Durant, who had 14.

Orlando Magic forward Ryan Anderson just barely missed out on advancing out of the opening round.

Anderson sank his first four money balls, and he had 17 points before he attempted his final shot: a money ball from the left corner that would have propelled into the final round.

But Anderson's shot hit was short, hitting the left edge of the rim, prompting a collective groan from the crowd.

Anderson leads the league in three-pointers made and attempted.

The Heat's James Jones, who was the defending three-point champ, finished third behind Love and Durant.

San Antonio point guard Tony Parker won the skills competition.

Parker was the only one of six participants to break 30 seconds in the first round (29.2), and his time of 32.8 in the final run on the obstacle course was better than Boston's Rajon Rondo (34.6) and New Jersey's Deron Williams (41.4).

Team New York had the touch from outside and won the Shooting Stars event.

Former Knicks star Allan Houston nailed his third attempt at a half-court shot to give his team consisting of current Knicks guard Landry Fields and Cappie Pondexter of the WNBA's New York Liberty the victory.

Cleveland rookie Kyrie Irving was a perfect 8 for 8 from three-point range and finished with 34 points, helping Team Chuck beat Team Shaq, 146-133, in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday.

The Sixers' Evan Turner had a double-double, scoring 16 points and bringing down a game-high 11 rebounds. He also had seven assists. However, the night belonged to Irving, who earned MVP honors.

- Inquirer wire services