SUNS

Suns rookie Devin Booker finishes 3rd in NBA 3-Point Contest

Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Feb 13, 2016: Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker competes in the three-point contest during the NBA All Star Saturday Night at Air Canada Centre.

If you are going to finish third in a 3-Point Contest, being 19 years old and getting beat only by the Splash Brothers is the way to go.

Booker, the contest's youngest competitor ever, made it out of the eight-player field by winning a first-round tiebreaker but wound up in third place as Golden State’s Klay Thompson dethroned runner-up, defending champ and teammate Stephen Curry.

Booker was the fourth rookie to participate in the contest and the first since Curry did it. He got off to a slow start in the first round, his worst fear heading into it, by missing his first four shots and seven of his first eight. But his strategy to place all of his two-point money balls on the final rack paid off when he made his final four shots.

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Booker finished with a first-round score of 20, tying him with James Harden and J.J. Redick for the final round’s third spot with Thompson and Curry. In a 30-second tiebreaker, Booker’s score of 12 beat Redick’s nine and Harden’s eight.

Booker went first in the final round and shot well, making 13 of his 25 shots. But he missed the money ball on the first four racks and finished with a score of 16, behind Thompson’s 25 and Curry’s 23. Booker had predicted it would take 20 to get to the final round (it did) and 25 to win it (it did). Last year’s third-place winner received $15,000.

"It was really fun," Booker told reporters in Toronto. "I’m out there with some of the best shooters to ever play basketball, so you know it’s just a blessing, an honor. I try to go out there and have fun with it, but at the same time you don’t want to lose."

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