In the first year of the new 3-point contest format, the 27-year old Marco Belinelli emerged victorious, holding off Sophomore Bradley Beal with a contest-high 24-point performance in the tiebreaker round to beat Beal’s 18-point performance.
The first format change, which pitted the conferences against each other and had the top shooter from each conference in the first round advance to the finals instead of having the top two scorers from the first round advance, ended up having absolutely no effect, as the finalists under the new format ended up having the top two scores in the first round anyways. Belinelli’s first round score of 19 was enough to get him past Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, and Kevin Love, while Beal’s first-round score of 21 put him into the finals ahead of Kyrie Irving, Joe Johnson, and Arron Affalo.
Both players made good use of the new all-moneyball rack throughout the contest, with Belinelli putting his rack in the right corner and Beal choosing to put his in the left wing. Beal provided some drama in the final round, as he hit his final six shots to tie Belinelli’s 19-point performance and send the contest into a tiebreaker. It wasn’t enough, however, as Belinelli turned it on to win the tiebreaker round and his first 3-point contest trophy.
Belinelli, who is a career 39.5% 3-point shooter in seven seasons with the Warriors, Raptors, Hornets, Bulls, and Spurs. This season, Belinelli is shooting a career-high 44.8% from deep, but he was still an underdog coming in. According to Bovada.lv, the odds against Belinelli winning were 8-1 -- only Joe Johnson came into the contest with longer odds from the bookmakers.
