Trae Young and the All-Star Team Lose Skills Challenge to Tyrese Haliburton and Hometown Indiana Pacers Team

Hawks point guard Trae Young was looking to become the first member of the Hawks to be a part of the winning team on the NBA Skills Challenge. He was paired with 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes and they were up against the first picks squad (Victory Wembanyama, Anthony Edward, and Paolo Banchero) and the Indiana Pacers team (Tyrese Haliburton, Benedict Mathurin, and Myles Turner).

In the first round of the skills challenge tonight, Young was able to lead the pace for his team, scoring the best time. He, Barnes, and Maxey would put up a time of 1:18 in the first round and easily beat the No. 1 overall picks team due to some miscues from Paolo Banchero and Anthony Edwards opting to shoot his three-point shot left-handed.

Trae's relay run in #KiaSkills 🏃 pic.twitter.com/qX2BfEvCPW
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 18, 2024

Then it was time for the Indiana Pacers squad. Haliburton, Mathurin, and Turner were able to easily beat Young and the All-Star team and win the first round. They got 100 points and had an early lead in the skills challenge.

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Then came the precision passing challenge, which was going to be an area where Young was going to shine and he did. He led the All-Stars team with 36 points and they ended up scoring 74 points in the passing challenge.

The first picks squad gave another woeful performance as a follow-up, scoring only 58 points, and then the Pacers tied the All-Stars score of 74.

So to a tiebreaker, we went.

The All-Stars were able to outdo their first-round score of 74, scoring 90 points, but the Pacers would score a fantastic 92 points and won the tiebreaker. It looked like the Pacers team was going to win the skills challenge in front of their home crowd.

Trae leads the way for Team All Stars and records the most points in the passing drill 👐 @kia pic.twitter.com/4K54IvWqCs
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 18, 2024

Team shooting was up next and the All-Star team scored 33 points in the first round. They far outperformed the No. 1 pick team (19 points) and the Pacers team (20 points). They tied the Pacers team 200-200 and we were going to a tiebreaker

The tiebreaker was going to be a half-court shot competition and it took the All-Star team 58.8 seconds to hit a half-court shot, which was made by Maxey. It was going to be up to the Pacers team to beat that time.

They did it and it was the hometown superstar Tyrese Haliburton that nailed the final halfcourt shot and the Pacers won the skills challenge.

Stay tuned though. Young is not done yet and will be competing in the three-point contest.

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