Team Cavs players Evan Mobley (from left), Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland celebrate their victory in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge during the 2022 NBA All-Star Saturday Night at Rocket Mortgage Field House. Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Team Cavs wins Skills Challenge in front of home crowd

By Jordan Wolf | Last updated 2/19/22

All-Star Weekend is in Cleveland this year, and on Saturday night, the Cavs players gave the hometown crowd a show.

Team Cavs -- composed of Cleveland's Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen -- took home the title in the Taco Bell Skills Challenge to kick of All-Star Saturday Night. It was the first year the contest was played under the new format.

In the past, players competed as solo competitors. But this year, there were three teams of three: Team Cavs, Team Rooks (Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey, Scottie Barnes) and Team Antetokounmpo (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo).

Instead of competing in one obstacle course of passes, shots and dribble moves like in the past, the skills were divided into three stages. The first stage, a shooting competition, was won by Team Cavs after an electric closing performance by Garland.

HOME TOWN COOKIN' @dariusgarland22 | #TacoBellSkills pic.twitter.com/LmMwazlPLJ
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 20, 2022

The second round was a passing course in which players had to rotate simultaneously and connect on passes of various distances on moving targets. Team Antetokounmpo won this round, evening the score with Team Cavs.

The final round was a team relay, which looked much more like the original format for the competition as players had to pass, dribble and shoot their way up and down the court. This event was worth double points, however, so when Team Rooks won, they vaulted into first place.

That meant Team Cavs and Team Rooks had to compete in a tiebreaker. Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Garland each shot a three, and Garland made his to advance his team to the finals.

The championship round was short and sweet -- whichever team could make a half-court shot first would come out victorious. Team Rooks missed their first few shots before Cunningham eventually connected on one after just under 10 seconds.

Once again, however, Team Cavs wasn't going to let the home crowd down. Allen shot first and missed, but Mobley stepped up and drilled the second shot of the round to capture the championship for Team Cavs.