With the 2012 NBA season in full swing and with the shortened schedule, it’s already time for the All-Star break this coming weekend. <\/p>\n
Where: The Amway Center in Orlando, Fl. And along with the All-Star game itself, comes the always hyped Slam Dunk Contest, and the often overlooked and always thrilling Three-Point Shootout. <\/p>\n The three-point contest has vaulted legends like the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird to Hall-of-Fame prominence since 1986, and although this year, there isn’t anyone with Bird’s pedigree, Miami Heat forward James Jones will be looking to defend his crown, and it won’t be easy as there is no shortage of strong challengers.<\/p>\n So, let’s look at the 2012 competitors and pontificate a winner.<\/p>\n Ryan Anderson 5\/2- <\/strong>The Orlando guard will definitely have the home crowd behind him in this contest. A pure shooter, Anderson leads the NBA in 3-pointers made with 95, and his shooting percentage from the arc is an eye-popping 44 percent. It’s no wonder he is one of two favorites in this contest. <\/p>\n Anthony Morrow 5\/2-<\/strong> Despite finishing in the top 10 in 3-point shooting percentage in his first three seasons, this Morrow’s first 3-point contest. This season he is third in the league in made 3-pointers with 68 at a clip of 41.2 percent. He should be one of the stronger contenders.<\/p>\n James Jones 3\/1- <\/strong>Returning to this year’s competition to defend his title will put some pressure on Jones. Not to mention the added -no pun intended “heat”– he is likely to receive from the Sunshine State’s other team’s fans. The Miami sharpshooter scored a final total of 20 points to win the championship last year, and comes into this year’s contest shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point land with 22 threes on the season.[soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Mario Chalmers 4\/1-<\/strong> There won’t be any love lost as Chalmers aims to dethrone his Miami teammate. Chalmers has the second-highest total of 3-pointers among the players selected for the competition, with 61 treys on the year.<\/p>\n Kevin Love 5\/1- <\/strong>Timberwolves forward Kevin Love has a career percentage of 36.6 percent from beyond the arc and is making 1.6 threes per game this season. But for some reason the odds makers just aren’t giving him any love in this one. He may be the underdog heading into the competition, but he certainly has a good chance to come out the top dog.<\/p>\n Joe Johnson 5\/1-<\/strong> Another contender that’s getting glossed over is the Hawks’ Joe Johnson, who is tied for 13th in the NBA with 53 three-pointers made while shooting 36 percent from downtown This is Johnson’s third attempt to bring the title to Atlanta. You know what they say–third time is a charm.<\/p>\n Three-Point Contest prediction: Ryan Anderson–<\/strong>Anderson is precisely the type of player that can win this competition. He has had a monster season this far, draining an average of three bombs per game. He should also feed off the crowd’s energy, and his familiarity with the court will help him. <\/p>\n Matt Martz points out The Slam Dunk Contest is a staple of the NBA\u2019s All-Star weekend \u2013 but so is the Three-Point Shootout. Here’s are favorites and odds to win the 2012 version…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":34130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[53747,53748,53749,44881,44882,10375,53750,53754,44884,53751,53752,53753,10345,10377,53755,10376,1168,6198,44889],"class_list":["post-48427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-2012-nba-all-star-game-lines","tag-2012-nba-all-star-game-odds","tag-2012-nba-allstar-game","tag-3-point-contest-gambling-odds","tag-3-point-contest-lines","tag-3-point-contest-odds","tag-61st-annual-nba-all-star-game","tag-anthony-morrow-odds","tag-james-jones-odds","tag-joe-johnson-odds","tag-kevin-love-odds","tag-mario-chalmers-odds","tag-nba-all-star-game-betting-preview","tag-nba-all-star-skills-betting","tag-ryan-anderson-odds","tag-skills-competition-odds","tag-sportsbook","tag-sportsbook-nba-odds","tag-three-point-shootout-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48427"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48452,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48427\/revisions\/48452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhen: Saturday, February 25 at 8PM ET
\nBroadcast: TNT <\/strong><\/p>\n2012 NBA 3-Point Contest Odds<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE FOR THE BEST COLLEGE BASKETBALL PICKS ALL SEASON LONG —–><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"