NEW ORLEANS – The NBA’s Three-Point Contest required a tiebreaker after Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving and Houston’s Eric Gordon each posted 20 points in the final round.

Gordon, who has made 184 three-pointers and is shooting 38.5% from that distance this season, got the best of Irving – the 2013 champion – in the tiebreaker, outscoring him 21-19.

"Towards the end, you get a little tired," said Gordon, a first-time Three-Point Contest participant. "I wasn't really concentrating on how many I made. It's all about just focusing on just knocking down the shot. I never count it in my head or anything. You just go out there and shoot the ball. That last rack, it was just mostly fatigue."

Gordon's victory was tough for New Orleans Pelicans fans. Gordon spent five seasons with the Pelicans but for a variety of reasons, including injuries, was never the players the Pelicans hoped he would be.

He left New Orleans for Houston in the offseason and is having one of the best seasons of his career. Coming off the bench, he is a Sixth Man of the Year candidate for the Rockets.

Irving grew tried at the end, too.

"Fifty shots in two minutes. Man," Irving said. "So when it got to the last rack, when I was on my money balls, really trying to lock in and get my score up, I noticed I had less than 10 seconds. Usually, I try to leave 11 to 10 seconds to try to get to the next spot. Once I noticed that the time was going down, the last three shots that I took on the last rack weren’t even the ones I wanted to take.

"But it was a great competition. Great guys out there.

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