What Time Does The 2015 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Actually Start?

The 2015 NBA Slam Dunk Contest is one of several events on NBA All-Star Weekend that are set to take place before the game itself. After the Celebrity Game and the Rising Stars Challenge took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Friday night, Saturday’s festivities move to Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

All-Star Saturday Night is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET, but the Slam Dunk Contest will conclude the night's events. But what time does the Slam Dunk Contest actually get underway?

Three competitions will precede the Slam Dunk Contest. The Shooting Stars competition, Skills Challenge and Three-Point Contest are all scheduled before the dunk contest. The dunk contest won’t start until around 10:30 or 10:45 p.m. EST.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mason Plumlee, Victor Oladipo and Zach LaVine will compete in the Slam Dunk Contest. All four players will have two dunks in the first round, and the two finalists will do the same in the second round. It’s unknown when the competition will end, since there is no time limit for each attempt.

LaVine, 19, is favored to win the competition, and doing so would give the Minnesota Timberwolves their second winner in the team's history. At age 22, Isaiah Rider won the competition in 1994.

Oladipo is looking to join Dwight Howard as the only other player to win the contest as a member of the Orlando Magic. A victory for Antetokounmpo or Plumlee would be the first ever in the history of the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets. The Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks are tied with four winners.

Four teams will compete in Shooting Stars, as a current NBA player is paired with a legend that used to play for his current franchise, along with a WNBA star. Eight NBA players will compete in the Skills Challenge, led by John Wall, Isaiah Thomas and Kyle Lowry. Stephen Curry, Kyle Korver and Klay Thompson are the top three favorites to win the eight-man Three-Point Shootout.