John Wall of the Washington Wizards dunks in the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday (US time). Photo: CFP

Washington's John Wall won the Slam Dunk Contest and Italy's Marco Belinelli captured the Three-Point Shootout in skills competitions on Saturday (US time) ahead of the 63rd NBA All-Star Game.

Before Sunday's showdown between elite ­lineups from the Eastern and ­Western Conference in New Orleans, players ­competed in a relaxed atmosphere for bragging rights in skills ­competitions.

Wall won a social media vote of viewers to capture the Slam Dunk individual trophy with an epic reverse dunk ­after leaping over his team's mascot to grab the ball.

A revamped format featured knockout matches with scoring from judges ­Julius Erving, ­Magic Johnson and Dominique Wilkins - all retired NBA legends.

Defending champion Terrence Ross of Toronto beat Portland's Damian Lillard and Indiana's Paul George downed Golden State's ­Harrison Barnes.

Then Wall beat Sacra­mento's Ben McLemore to give East players a sweep over their West rivals with a dunk that earned him overall best dunker honors.

McLemore leaped over a seated Shaquille ­O'Neal for his dunk, but Wall ­responded by leaping over a standing mascot and making a reverse slam.

"That dunk is one of the best I have seen in a long time," Wilkins said.

San Antonio Spurs guard Belinelli defeated Washington guard Bardley Beal in a tiebreaker final of the Three-Point Shootout.

Belinelli made seven of his final nine shots for 19 points in the final, then Beal sank his final six shots to equal him on 19 to force a replay tiebreaker.

Belinelli answered with 24 points, the best score in any round, by hitting eight of his last 10 shots. Beal could only ­muster 18 points in ­response.

The Shooting Stars event pitted retired legends with active NBA and Women's NBA players in three-person teams in making shots from various spots, the last from mid-court.

Miami's Chris Bosh, former Atlanta star Wilkins and WNBA star Swin Cash won the final in 31.4 ­seconds when Bosh sank a half-court shot, winning by 12.2 seconds over NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City, retired Utah star Karl Malone and the ­WNBA's Skylar Diggins.

The Skills Challenge, with the new format of a two-man obstacle course relay, went to 2013 winner Lillard and Utah rookie Trey Burke.

Rookies Victor ­Oladipo of Orlando and Michael Carter-Williams of Philadelphia set the time to beat of 45.3 seconds, but lost when Burke sank a layup to end his duo's run in 45.2.

AFP - Global Times