TORONTO — Isaiah Thomas finally encountered a big man he couldn’t overcome.

In the Skills Challenge as part of the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night, Thomas appeared to be heavily favored against Minnesota rookie center Karl-Anthony Towns. However, Towns was athletic enough to keep up with Thomas, draining a 3-pointer in a frantic back-and-forth to edge the Celtics guard in the finals.

In the competition, players participate in an obstacle-course type setting in which they have to throw a pass to a target, then race to convert a layup, and finish with a made 3-pointer.

It’s the second consecutive year Thomas has fallen short in the Skills Challenge, but he had nothing but props for Towns — who stands more than a foot taller.

“Yeah I’m going to try to post him up,’’ Thomas joked about the next time the Celtics play Minnesota. “He’s long. Six of my steps are two of his. He’s a long guy. [The centers] had been talking mess the whole time. That’s why I’m really upset. I let my guards down and then they got the last word.’’

Thomas easily defeated Denver’s Emmanuel Mudiay in the first round and then topped Portland’s C.J. McCollum in the second round.

Thomas had a few steps on Towns and beat him to the 3-point line, and then took his time to release one of his customary long-range shots. He missed. Towns then began launching 3-pointers just feet from Thomas and both players fired shots until Towns swished his attempt.

Towns said he received advice from a teammate very familiar to Boston fans.

“My heart was coming out my chest,’’ Towns said. “I’m usually never nervous of anything.

“It’s funny, the one thing I remember right before I got nervous was [Kevin Garnett] teaching just to breathe. He taught me how to breathe a certain way. While I was nervous, I was a lot less nervous because of that breathing technique he taught me. I just went out there and tried to do my best.’’

The 3-point competition came down to two familiar foes with Golden State’s Klay Thompson edging his teammate, reigning champion and league MVP, Stephen Curry in the final.

Thompson scored 27 points in the final round, as he hit his last eight shots to beat Curry and the Suns’ Devin Booker. Curry had 23 points in the final round, while Booker had 16.

In the dunk competition, the Timberwolves’ Zach LaVine retained his title, holding off the Magic’s Aaron Gordon that needed two extra rounds. Seven of the eight dunks in the finals earned perfect scores of 50.

Smoke, but no fire

After a rumor swirled that the Celtics, Cavaliers, and Knicks had discussed a deal that would send Kevin Love to Boston and Carmelo Anthony to Cleveland, the parties involved who were at All-Star Weekend spent Saturday morning knocking it down.

“It’s false,’’ LeBron James said. “It’s the only thing I can look at it and say it’s false. That’s the last thing guys are worried about right now are trade talks from our team.’’

Anthony reiterated he will not waive his no-trade clause and has no interest in leaving the Knicks.

“I can’t answer that,’’ Anthony said when asked what it would take to waive his no-trade clause. “I can, but I don’t think I want to. [The no-trade clause] was a big part of signing that contract [extension with the Knicks], to have security.’’

Silver makes call

Commissioner Adam Silver discussed various league topics in his de facto state-of-the-league address, touching on some key points:

¦ On a potential adjustment to the Hack-a-Rule that is used often by the Celtics: “Well, first of all, change will not be enacted this season, but it’s an issue that we’ve been studying for some time now. As I said, this past summer we had a Competition Committee that met at the end of the season to talk about the so-called Hack-a-Shaq issue, and consider whether we should change or propose changing any rules. At that time the determination was we should continue to monitor it, and the Competition Committee said to the league office, we’d like to see data from an additional season before we’re ready to make a recommendation.’’

¦ Silver confirmed what Celtics coach Brad Stevens said last week, that officials have clearance to assess flagrant fouls on players who jump on the backs of other players as means of committing an intentional foul. Silver said the league’s owners will meet Sunday and that adjustment could begin with Thursday’s games.

¦ On the potential elimination of conference affiliation when seeding playoff teams: “I think that we had a fairly robust discussion among our owners last year about the potential to reseed all teams straight through 1 through 16. I said as much as, from a competitive standpoint, there are reasons you’d like to see 1 through 16. On the other side of the coin is the additional travel it would require. You could potentially have Golden State Warriors playing Boston in the first round, and ultimately the decision by the owners was let’s let it stand as it is.

“Again, we have the traditions of the conference. Also, it would then presumably require playing a completely balanced schedule throughout the league, and of course now we don’t. Teams in the West play teams in the West more and vice-versa the East. I don’t think there is any active discussion right now about any additional changes in playoff seeding.’’

Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.