NBA 3-Point Contest: Betting Favorites, Odds & Lines

Forbes

14 February 2024

The night before the All-Star Game has several exciting competitions between the league’s biggest stars, including the Skills Challenge, the 3-Point and the Slam Dunk Contests.

This year’s NBA 3-Point Contest features an added wrinkle.

In addition to the standard competition between the NBA’s top shooters, there will be a one-on-one contest between the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and the New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionesco in the first-ever NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Challenge.

The night will kick off at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 17, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. This marks Indianapolis’ first time hosting the All-Star Game since 1985 and the first time hosting the 3-Point Contest, which debuted the following year.

NBA betting sites have odds for both competitions, which you can find below.

NBA 3-Point Contest Odds

Damian Lillard: +490
Malik Beasley: +550
Tyrese Haliburton: +550
Jalen Brunson: +600
Karl-Anthony Towns: +600
Trae Young: +600
Lauri Markkanen: +700
Donovan Mitchell: +700

Odds from FanDuel Sportsbook. Subject to change.

Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard has the shortest odds after winning last year’s event in Utah. Lillard ranks third among active players and fifth all-time in made 3-pointers.

This will be his fourth time competing in the event – the most of anyone in the field.

Lillard’s teammate Malik Beasley is tied with Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton for the second-shortest odds. He’s been the group’s most accurate distance shooter this season at 44.7% (fifth in NBA) but has never appeared in the contest.

Since the first official NBA 3-Point Contest in 1986, no player has ever won the contest on their home court. The closest anyone came was when Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki won the 2006 competition in Houston, a different city in Texas. Haliburton will try to buck that trend and become the first after falling short in last year’s competition.

The other previous winner on this list is Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, who won the 2022 event in Cleveland. At seven feet tall, Towns is easily the field’s tallest player. He also has the group’s second-highest 3-point percentage at 43.8%.

Towns is tied with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson and Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young on the oddsboard. Towns and Brunson have never appeared in the contest before, while Young is making his third appearance. He’s an injury replacement for Philadelphia 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey, who’s unable to participate due to a broken foot.

Young ranks third in made 3-pointers this season behind Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic, neither of whom are participating.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell and Utah Jazz guard Lauri Markkanen round out the list. Both are competing in the contest for the second time.

In addition to the winner odds, bettors can also wager on prop bets like how many 3-pointers a player will make in a specific round.

NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Shootout

Stephen Curry: -265
Sabrina Ionescu: +200

Curry is favored to beat Ionescu in the first-ever NBA versus WNBA shootout.

Curry is the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-pointers and is widely considered the greatest shooter. The Golden State Warriors star won the traditional 3-point contest in 2015 and 2021.

He also leads the NBA in made 3-pointers this season – which would be his eighth time leading the league in the category.

Ionescu is the reigning WNBA 3-point league leader and 3-Point Contest champion. Last summer, she scored 37 out of a possible 40 points in the WNBA 3-Point Contest – the most in NBA/WNBA combined history.

The New York Liberty star broke Curry’s previous record of 31, making 25 of her final 27 attempts.

After shattering Curry’s record, Ionescu challenged him to a one-on-one 3-point contest. The winner doesn’t receive anything beyond bragging rights, but money will go to their charities for every 3-pointer they make.

Curry will shoot with NBA balls from the NBA 3-point line, while Ionescu will use smaller WNBA balls from the shorter WNBA 3-point line.

Since Ionescu’s shots are easier, she could have good betting value at plus odds.

NBA 3-Point Contest Winners

There have been 37 3-Point Contests since the inaugural event in 1986. The 1999 contest was canceled due to the NBA lockout.

Twenty-eight different players have won the contest, including seven multi-time winners.

Larry Bird and Craig Hodges hold the record with three victories, which they both won consecutively. Bird won the first three events from 1986 to 1988, while Hodges won from 1990 to 1992.

Peja Stojakovic, Jeff Hornacek, Mark Price, Jason Kapono and Stephen Curry have all won twice.

Curry is the only active player with multiple titles, winning in 2015 and 2021 – the event’s longest span between titles. He’s also the only multi-time winner not to win his titles consecutively.

The contest has not had a repeat winner since Kapono in 2007-2008.

NBA 3-Point Contest Rules

The rules of the 3-Point Contest have changed several times over the years, but here’s an overview of the current ones.

The goal is to make as many 3-pointers as possible. The contest starts with five racks of five balls (25 total) set up behind the 3-point line. There’s one rack in each corner and wing and one at the top of the arc.

Four of the racks contain four official NBA balls and one multi-colored “moneyball” at the end. Each regular ball is worth one point, while each moneyball is worth two.

Players must shoot every ball in a rack before moving on to the next one, and they must move in a circular motion around the arc.

One of the racks is all moneyballs and can be placed at the location of the shooter’s choice.

There are also two “deep balls” to the left and right of the middle rack. These balls are worth three points.

Players have a time limit of 70 seconds to shoot all 27 balls. They can record a maximum of 40 points.

There are two rounds. The three players with the highest scores in the first round move on to the championship round. Whereas players go in random order in the first round, they go in inverse order during the championship round (lowest score first, highest score last) so the players with higher scores know how many balls they need to make.

Otherwise, the championship round is the same as the first round. The player with the highest score at the end of the final round wins.

The winner receives $50,000, while the runner-up gets $35,000, and third place gets $25,000. Fourth, fifth and sixth place get $10,000 apiece, while seventh and eighth place don’t receive anything.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images