Mike Conley Defeated Zach LaVine In A Highly Entertaining HORSE Finals

The NBA HORSE Challenge finals saw Zach LaVine, who beat Paul Pierce and Allie Quigley thanks to his wild athleticism, go up against Mike Conley Jr., who beat Tamika Catchings and Chauncey Billups thanks to ambidextrousness, creativity, and an indoor gym.

The finals were quite entertaining as Mike Conley won the coin toss and got to work with a behind the back layup and a closed eyes free throw to get LaVine a couple quick letters.

LaVine would get a couple letters back by going into his bag of tricks with the tap the backboard reverse layup and a bank shot from the top of the key.

But Conley pulled back ahead, H-O-R to H-O, with his “offhand” bag of tricks, hitting a right handed three that LaVine had no answer for.

After failing to get it to work in the semis and on his first effort in the finals, Conley finally got his spin the ball on his finger, punch shot to drop, clearly the proudest moment of the tournament thus far for him as he got within one letter of the title.

Conley then went back to the well that got him the victory in the first round over Catchings, sinking his over the backboard layup, which LaVine rimmed out to take home the HORSE championship.

It’s not a huge surprise that Conley won, given that as soon as we saw his setup compared to everyone else’s and his advantage with offhand shots we knew he’d be a problem. On top of that, he was the most creative of any player in the competition in doing actual HORSE shots — with LaVine probably in second with some of his wild layup concoctions — like spinning the ball on the finger and punching it and his over the backboard layup.