Bobby Portis represented the Milwaukee Bucks in his first-ever 3-point contest on Saturday night. It wasn’t his night, though, or anyone else’s. Once again, Damian Lillard stole the show to win the contest for a record-tying third time (he also won in 2023 and ’24).
Portis, meanwhile, achieved the unfortunate status of putting up the lowest score of the night: Tyrese Maxey, with 17 first-round points, came closest to Portis’ 15. They, along with Jamal Murray (18), Norm Powell (23), and Donovan Mitchell (24) were eliminated.
Lillard (27), Kon Knueppel (27), and Devin Booker (30) advanced the second and final round en route to the event’s third dose of Dame Time in four years.
Bucks fans would rather BP save those makes for real games, anyway
While Portis is more of a catch-and-shooter than a grenade launcher off the bounce, he was, nonetheless, a deserving participant (and let it be known that he has a smooth baseline stepback). Cashing in from long range at a 45.1% clip, he ranks sixth in the league this season. He attempts (and makes) more threes per game than two of the players ahead of him in percentage.
By that measure, it is the second-best season of Portis’ career, trailing only the 47.1% he shot in 2020-21 – his memorable first year in Milwaukee.
Unlike the other contestants, however, he cannot boast gaudy volume stats in the scoring column. He is the only non-guard to participate. That should tell you something about who generally gets invited. As a big man, Portis earned an outlier invitation.
He is nonetheless having another successful year as a bench scorer off the bench. On the season he is up to 13.2 points per game and 6.6 rebounds after a slow start in both categories. Between December and January, Portis averaged better than 15 points per night. Often, the Bucks have relied on him to inject life into the offense with his confident shooting.
It’s okay if Portis’ All-Star Weekend debut was something of a dud. Save those makes for the games that count and come out firing after the break.
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