The NBA‘s recent All-Star weekend will definitely help the league’s ratings in the latter half of this season. Obviously, the trade deadline will aid exposure as well, but exhibition basketball has never shone brighter than it did during the Taco Bell Skills Challenge with a thrilling 3-point contest and an electric dunk contest that ended up needing a dunk off.

Both players recorded perfect scores in the final round, and this required two more dunks from both guys. The NBA should honestly cut Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon an extra check for the work they put in over this weekend.

The league should definitely consider making the 3-point contest the final event of the Skills Challenge, and it was actually entertaining this year too due to all of the eccentric big men who were participating. Draymond Green went out very quickly, but Karl-Anthony Towns looked motivated to win the event from the word go. It was awesome the way that the other big men mauled him after he won the event.

The 3-point contest though was the most competitive of all the events during the weekend. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were the two favorites from the start, but almost every other participant delivered at least one solid round. Thompson had vowed to dethrone Curry before the weekend, and the shooting guard kept his promise.

The Skills Challenge has long been the most fun part of the All-Star festivities, and the league should examine how to make the actual headliner more exciting. Some analysts have floated the idea of having the two players with the most votes pick their teams, and this is intriguing.

Obviously, seeing which player is chosen last would be super interesting, but it would also be fascinating to observe if one team became guard- or forward-heavy as a result. Fans were granted a fantastic Skills Challenge that saved the following day’s game which had no defense.