Domantas Sabonis Beat Nikola Vucevic As Bigs Dominated The Skills Challenge

The first event of Sunday’s 2021 NBA All-Star festivities was the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, and this year with only All-Stars and HBCU alum Robert Covington participating, the field was cut to six and the two guards in the field — Chris Paul and Luka Doncic — earned first round byes.

That meant the big fellas had the stage to start, as Domantas Sabonis took on Julius Randle and Nikola Vucevic faced Covington in the opening round. Sabonis and Vucevic cruised to the second round by not missing anything — the pass, layup, or three-pointer — and the expectation from most was that the competition would get a bit stiffer in Round 2 with the guards getting their chance.

However, Sabonis torched Doncic, who didn’t exactly look to be dialed in as he stayed in sweats for the competition, as the Mavs star couldn’t get the pass to go in and Sabonis made his three before Doncic even got into the frame.

Vucevic then faced Chris Paul in a more competitive battle that saw both hit the pass but Paul blow the layup, giving Vucevic a brief lead. The two missed initial threes but the big man from Orlando was able to knock it down under CP3’s attempt to punch his ticket to the all-big man finals.

In the finals, it once again came down to the three-point shot, and after both missed badly on early efforts, Sabonis found the bottom of the net for the win.