Team Pacers wins 2024 NBA Skills Challenge in home city
INDIANAPOLIS — Because they were playing in the host city, the Indiana Pacers had their own dedicated squad for the Skills Challenge on Saturday night at NBA All-Star Weekend. Team Pacers, as they were called, was composed of Myles Turner, Tyrese Haliburton, and Bennedict Mathurin.
They all have prior All-Star weekend experience, including Mathurin winning MVP in the Rising Stars festivities one night earlier, but this event was newer for all three players.
"Going into the skills contest, I have no idea what that entails. Looking forward to finding that out," Haliburton said earlier on Saturday. "I do think what we have over people is chemistry because we're all together all the time."
The Skills Challenge features elements of passing, ball handling, jump shooting, and speed. Team Pacers was going to face off with Team All-Stars (Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey, and Scottie Barnes) and Team Top Picks (Victor Wembanyama, Paolo Banchero, and Anthony Edwards).
"I told the guys, we've got to go full speed. I'm trying to win that thing, especially in Indy," Mathurin said.
Turner shared that the group would get to work together before the event and figure out some details. Team Pacers needed to figure out their order of attack in Lucas Oil Stadium. They were going last of the three teams.
"All three of us knew we wanted to do it," Turner said of the competition. All three players got to do a short preview of their upcoming challenge just under two hours before they had to execute.
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton looks on and surveys the court to prepare for the 2024 NBA Skills Competition at NBA All-Star Weekend. (Mandatory Photo Credit: Tony East)
The challenge had three rounds, with the relay coming first. Team All-Stars was the debut squad, and they finished with a time of 1:18. Team Top Picks was next, and they were a little slower after Edwards attempted left handed three-point shots.
Team Pacers was last, and Turner was first up of the trio. He had a flawless start and was followed by Mathurin, who was also terrific — missing a floater for his only blemish. Haliburton closed things out with no errors — even adding some flair by throwing the ball off the backboard to himself. Team Pacers took the relay round with a win. They earned 100 challenge points for the victory.
Round two of the competition was all about passing. It involved moving between targets and throwing a ball into them, and there was some finesse and bounce passing involved. Team All-Stars finished with a score of 74 and Team Top Picks had 58 before Team Pacers went for round three, and they ended up tying the top score. They had to perform a tiebreaker with Team All-Stars, which was just repeating the contest again with those two trios.
Both groups learned that they could carry two balls at once in between passes, which led to higher scores. The All-Stars finished with 90, but Team Pacers finished with a dramatic 92 to take the win and earn 100 more challenge points.
The final round was all about shooting. The rosters were awarded a number of points between one and five for hitting shots from various different spots on the court, with more points being awarded for a deeper bucket.
Team All-Stars, led by the outside shooting of Young and Maxey, finished with 33. Team Top Picks knocked in 19, and Team Pacers wrapped up the challenge with a dismal 11. The Pacers group said it was the hardest round.
200 points were handed to Team All-Stars for the victory in that round. That set up a tiebreaker between Team All-Stars and Team Pacers, and the tiebreaker was all about making a half court shot as fast as possible.
The All-Stars needed 58.8 seconds to can a shot from that far away. It only took Team Pacers 39.5 seconds — Haliburton got one to fall. They became Skills Challenge champions in their host city.
"It felt good, it felt good. There was a lot of energy in the building, lot of people want to see us succeed. It feels good to win."
The Pacers rank fourth as a team in three-point percentage this season, but they fell apart in that round. They were still able to overcome that and take home the victory. It was Mathurin's second title of All-Star weekend.
"This is cool, man. It's just a really glorifying moment," Turner said after the event about winning it in his city.
The three players received their trophies on the court just after the competition, but the celebrations quickly ended as the LED court changed to get ready for the three-point contest. Even with the celebrations done, the Pacers were 2024 Skills Challenge champs.
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