Patrick Beverley is the 2015 NBA Skills Challenge champion, coming from behind to beat Brandon Knight in the final round.
NBA Skills Challenge 2015: Patrick Beverley wins new-look competition
The Houston guard earned a stunning victory.
This year featured a new head-to-head tournament format with three sets of two players competing against each other. Beverley and Isaiah Thomas led the event off and each seemed to struggle a bit with the new format, particularly the jump shot -- which now ends the competition instead of being put in the middle. Both missed their entire rack of three-pointers and Beverley advanced by making a layup first.
Controversy will surely rage long into the night questioning whether Jeff Teague took his semifinal matchup against Beverley as seriously as he could. Beverley struggled with the chest pass and gave Teague a huge cushion, and it appeared Teague saw that and slowed down a bit. After Teague missed two shots, Beverley caught up and buried his first three-pointer.
Beverley was bogged down again with the chest pass in the final round, but after Knight missed a couple shots, Beverley caught up and swished the first one he took to take the crown.
The lesson here for all the kids aspiring one day to participate in the Skills Challenge is this: it always comes down to the jumper. Every single time.
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