NBA Betting – NBA 3-Point Shooting Contest
The 3-pointer has become the biggest weapon in the NBA and nobody has made the shot more popular than Golden State’s Stephen Curry. Curry will compete in his seventh MTN DEW 3-Point Shooting Contest while looking to add another championship to the one he captured in 2015. Despite the concerns of a number of stars over whether the league should even hold a game and events during the COVID pandemic, this contest has attracted a strong field with Curry and Phoenix’s Devin Booker former winners. Curry’s ability to drain buckets from all over the floor has him as the odds on favorite to win the contest. Bookmaker.eu offers a generous CASH welcome bonus (max CASH bonus $1600).
MTN DEW 3-Point Shooting Contest
Date and Time: Sunday, March 7, 2021, 6:30 p.m. ET
Location: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
Opening NBA Odds: Stephen Curry +180
MTN DEW 3-Point Shooting Contest TV Coverage: TNT
Due to COVID we don’t have All-Star Weekend this year rather with all events packed into a single day it’s All-Star Sunday. The 3-point contest along with the skills challenge will take place before the 70th All-Star Game. The events have been streamlined as well for timing reasons.
A byproduct of the old American Basketball Association (ABA), which was well ahead of its time, the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest has been a part of All-Star festivities since 1986. The field for the 2021 edition is strong with a pair of former winners and each participant also taking part in the All-Star Game. The format has been largely untouched since the contest’s inception with the league making mostly cosmetic changes. This year only six players will compete, the fewest ever.
The format is the same as what we saw in 2020. Four racks of five balls are positioned around the arc with each containing a 2-point “money ball.” There is also a fifth all money ball rack with every ball worth 2-points. Two deep-shot locations positioned six-feet behind the line are located between the top of the arc and the wing. Each ball is worth 3-points.
Each of the six competitors will have 70 seconds to shoot as many of the 27 balls as possible with a maximum of 40 points available. The three players with the highest scores in the first round advance to the finals. The format is the same in the final round with the player amassing the most points declared the winner.
Odds to win 2021 MTN DEW 3-Point Shooting Contest
Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) +180
Zach LaVine (Chicago Bulls) +300
Devin Booker (Phoenix Suns) +300
Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz) +450
Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics) +750
Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics) +850
Betting against Curry is a bold move. The most dangerous 3-point shooter in the game today and quite possibly of all-time has left his mark and he’s not done. Curry leads the NBA with 169 made triples this season and holds the single-season mark with 402 in 2015-16. You’d think Curry would win this event every time, but that hasn’t been the case. He was upended in five of his previous six contests, so there is hope for the rest of the field.
And it’s not like the other competitors are pushovers. At +300 on the opening odds board Booker has value. He’s very familiar with the event having competed in the last three contests while making his fifth trip overall. He won the title in 2018 scoring a 3-point shooting contest record 28 points in the final round to defeat Curry’s teammate Klay Thompson. Booker advanced to the final round last year falling to Buddy Hield.
Zach LaVine and Donovan Mitchell are shooting threes at a career-high clip this season and can’t be overlooked. They are also former winners of the Slam Dunk Contest and will try to become the first to win both events. LaVine took a shot in this contest last year scoring 22 points to barely miss advancing to the final round. Mitchell, who leads the NBA best Utah Jazz in scoring, is making his 3-point debut.
The Celtics duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can score a lot of points but they aren’t true 3-point shooters leaving them at the bottom of the odds board. They are both first timers and launching a bunch of shots in a short period of time can be exhausting.
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Curry is deserving of being favored for obvious reasons. But the field can fill it up and Curry won’t be handed the crown. While I look over the shortened list of players I keep coming back to Booker, who is a streaky catch-and-shoot player. If he gets hot I like his chances and have no problem throwing down on him.
NBA Prediction: Devin Booker
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- Phil Simon, Gambling911.com
