Shooting Stars returning to NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night lineup

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — For the first time since 2015, the NBA’s Shooting Stars event is returning to All-Star weekend.

The league made that announcement Saturday, revealing the lineups for two of the three events that’ll take place at next weekend’s All-Star Saturday Night at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home in Inglewood, California.

Shooting Stars — an event with three players per team — is taking the place of the skills competition, which is being tabled for at least this year.

Allan Houston — a past Shooting Stars champion — will return to the event this year for Team Knicks, with current New York players Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns joining him on that team. Also in the shooting event: Team Harper (Ron Harper Sr. and his sons, San Antonio’s Dylan Harper and Boston’s Ron Harper Jr.), Team All-Star (Richard Hamilton, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren) and Team Cameron (a nod to Duke, with Corey Maggette, Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel and Atlanta’s Jalen Johnson on that squad).

The last three Shooting Stars events were all won by the same trio — Chris Bosh, Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins.

The Shooting Stars event has a two-round format, with all four teams competing in the first round and the top two advancing to the final round. Teams have 70 seconds to score points while rotating through seven designated shooting locations around the court, with all three players on a team shooting at each spot in a set order.

There will be a new dunk champion this year, with three-time winner Mac McClung not in this year’s field. McClung said going into last year’s dunk event that he expected it to be his last.

This year’s dunk participants: Miami’s Keshad Johnson, San Antonio’s Carter Bryant, Orlando’s Jase Richardson and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Jaxson Hayes.

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