All-Star Saturday: Armor Do Well, the Nets Not So Much

The nice tribute Morrow made to Petrovic, a great shooter in his own right, didn't help him much in his debut appearance in the 3-point contest

In today's All-Star weekend festivities (ok, it was yesterday), the Nets and their D-League affiliate, the Springfield Armor, were really busy. On the D-League side, three Armor players (JameSon Curry, Jerry Smith, and Jeff Foote) played in the D-League All-Star game while L.D. Williams played (and won) in the dunk contest that took place at halftime of the game.

In the game, the East team (with all three Armor players) ended up losing 135-132 to the Western Conference D-League All-Stars. Curry scored a game-high 25 points off the bench on 10-for-16 shooting along with 8 assists. Smith started the game and scored 14 while Foote grabbed 7 rebounds but couldn't find his groove at the offensive end. In a weird note, Andre Emmett, whose 10-day deal with the Nets ended on Wednesday, played on the Western Conference team and scored 15. Emmett wasn't on the East squad because New Jersey didn't call him up from the Armor, but rather the Reno Bighorns.


Turning over to the NBA side, two Nets participated in the evening's events as Anthony Morrow lost in his 1st-career appearance in the 3-Point Shootout while Deron Williams failed at a chance to win his 2nd championship in the Skills Challenge. Oddly, Morrow couldn't find his stroke from behind-the-arc and was bounced in the 1st-round of the competition after mustering only 14 points out of a possible 30. In a relative upset, the Timberwolves' Kevin Love won the shootout after catching fire late in the contest.

After breezing through the 1st-round of the Skills Challenge, D-Will lost his shooting stroke and missed four straight 18-footers en route to a poor final round effort which cost him the championship that eventually went to Tony Parker of the Spurs.