Bradley Beal puts on a show, but finishes as runner-up in the 2014 Three Point Contest

Well, that was a fun three-point contest. Bradley Beal didn't win, falling to Marco Belinelli, but he sure put on a show in defeat.

In the first round, Beal made 21 points overall. He had an OK start and made five of his last six shots overall. The crowd also oohed and ahhed as he was getting on a hot streak toward the end. This was good enough, more than enough to get him into the Finals.

Then in the Finals, Beal faced Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs, the Western Conference champion. Belinelli went first and finished with 19 points, making seven of his last nine shots, and three out of five shots in the money rack. Beal then went after that and had a cold start, but he made his last six straight shots just to bring it to the tiebreaker round.

Let me repeat.  Beal made SIX STRAIGHT SHOTS to bring this Three Point Contest to a tiebreak.

Now that's Bealin' right there. We were salivating a victory since hey, not too many expected to see Belinelli make it this far.

But in the tiebreaker, Belinelli made 24 points, making EIGHT OF HIS LAST 10 SHOTS. He was a dark horse for this competition alright, but I didn't expect him to do this.

That put a lot of pressure on Beal. Could he somehow surpass that? Unfortunately he didn't, as he ultimately finished with 18 points.

So I'm mildly disappointed that Beal lost the competition. But ultimately, I'm really happy too to see Beal perform as well as he did. This Wizards team isn't really in the national spotlight. This weekend is our only chance to show our talents on a national and worldwide scale, and Beal certainly has delivered on that tonight.

OTHER NOTES

• The Western Conference team went first in the contest overall for the first round. Belinelli emerged as the winner with 19 points. Damian Lillard was second with 18. Kevin Love and Stephen Curry tied for third with 16 points.
• The Eastern Conference went next in the first round.  Joe Johnson started first and he was...  slow... and ... couldn't ... finish the racks with 11 points. Then Arron Afflalo had 15 points. Kyrie Irving, the defending Three Point Contest champion, finished with 17 points.
• The money ball rack can make or break a player. It hurt Kevin Love, Stephen Curry, Joe Johnson, who only made one out of five shots based on where they had the rack. It also helped Marco Belinelli, who had the money ball rack as his fifth.  He made three of his five shots on that rack every time.
• Beal is from St. Louis. So is rapper Nelly. And he even walked Brad to school when he was a kid. Check out this story on Yahoo Sports from Dan Devine for more.
• Speaking about Nelly, after Beal's great first round performance, the two exchanged a high five.

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