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Howard Soars in Spectacular Dunk Contest


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"At first I thought he was going to take the cupcake, eat it and then dunk it," Howard said. "I thought he would have won with that."
In the second round, McCants sat on the top step of the ladder and handed the ball off to a rising Green, who crushed another dunk.
That's when Howard stripped off his blue Magic jersey to reveal an "S" on his chest. As the crowd stood, he tied the cape around his massive shoulders.
"I didn't have time to get the telephone booth," he quipped.
Nelson placed a piece of tape to mark Howard's take-off spot, and after a running start from near mid-court, the Magic's main man took off just inside the free-throw line and fired down the ball with authority.
In the final round, Green performed two acrobatic dunks, one in only green socks after removing his sneakers. But neither of those could top Howard's last two efforts.
First, Howard bounced the ball off the floor, tapped it left-handed off the backboard and dunked with his right hand. For Howard's finale, Nelson affixed a miniature Orlando backboard next to the rim and balanced a ball on it.
Howard flew in from the right side, picked the ball off cleanly and slammed it in. He then only had to wait for fans to text message a result that seemed to be a no-brainer. Howard won in a landslide, receiving 78 percent of the vote.
Earlier, Jason Kapono showed nobody's close to him from long distance.
The NBA's best 3-point shooter this season, the Toronto forward with the silky touch won his second straight 3-point Shootout, tying a 22-year-old record with a final round of 25.
Kapono missed his first two shots in the last round before dropping 10 straight. By the time he approached the last rack of balls, Kapono had already clinched the win and didn't have to fire up another shot.
But he knocked down a few more anyway, matching three-time winner Craig Hodges' mark of 25 set in 1986. When his final shot swished through, Kapono, who made all five money balls _ worth two points apiece _ and went 20-for-25 in the last round, slapped high-fives with other All-Stars and hugged Raptors teammate Chris Bosh.


