Brown Bag it, Baby
We’ve featured plenty of monster dunks over the years here at LBS, but we’ve had very few where a player actually jumped over someone during a game.
Sure we’ve seen it happen during dunk contests, but how often does it happen during an actual game? Not often. That’s why we have to feature this first quarter dunk from LeBron James where he literally jumped over John Lucas Sunday. I don’t care how short Lucas is (he’s listed at 5’11″), that’s an incredible in-game feat for anyone.
Blake Griffin’s second quarter dunk on Kris Humphries in Monday’s Clippers-Nets game is what we call a sports win.
Griffin, the NBA’s favorite dunker, hammered one home on Kris Humphries, the NBA’s least favorite player. It really doesn’t get any better than that.
As Ball Don’t Lie says, this is definitely the internet’s favorite dunk.
The Heat beat the Bobcats in Charlotte 96-95 thanks to Dwyane Wade’s go-ahead jumper off the glass. It might not have come down to that bucket had a LeBron James dunk off Gerald Henderson’s head counted. James threw down a vicious jam, but the ball bounced off Henderson’s head and the refs missed that it went through the hoop, so they didn’t count it. Here is the video via Ben Golliver at Eye on Basketball:
If that headline makes no sense to you, we completely understand. That’s because it is being used to describe a play that I can’t ever really remember seeing. The Miami Heat began their 2011-2012 campaign in a big way on Christmas Day by smoking the defending champion Mavericks in an NBA Finals rematch. Since it was Christmas, even LeBron James found himself in a giving mood. Instead of throwing down an alley-oop when he received a perfect pass from Mario Chalmers, LeBron tipped the ball to Dwyane Wade who slammed it home. It was pretty much a double alley-oop. Check out this video that LBS contributor Alan Hull called our attention to:
If you notice the score, you’ll see that the Heat were cruising the entire game. LeBron said he wants to get back to having fun this year instead of being the villain, and Miami certainly looked like a relaxed bunch on Sunday. Like them or not, the Heat are a team that reached the NBA Finals in their first season together and became extremely dangerous as the season progressed last year. If healthy, I think they’re easily the best team in the NBA this season.
Let’s not get excited. The Clippers may have beaten the Lakers by a considerable margin in an exhibition game on Monday night, but that’s why it was an exhibition game. Okay, you can get a little excited.
When Blake Griffin first got the news about Chris Paul coming to the Clippers he acted like an excited 12-year-old who just realized he and his best friend got drafted by the same YMCA team. Yeah! Lob city! The man who took the phone call was DeAndre Jordan, and while most people are talking about Griffin and CP3 it looks like Jordan is going to shine in the new offense as well. Check out these three dunks that Jordan threw down against the Lakers, two of which were alley-oops from Paul:
NBA Finals or no NBA Finals, this is going to be an exciting team to watch. When they get going on offense it’s going to be almost impossible for opponents to match the Clippers’ athleticism. With guys who can finish like Griffin and Jordan and someone who can set them up while also posing a threat to shoot from anywhere on the floor, Los Angeles (B) could quickly switch places with Los Angeles (A). Blake was right: the Clippers are no longer a joke.
We all know the fast break is the best way to beat full-court pressure. The most exciting way to beat full-court pressure is to finish the play on the other end with a dunk. It’s even more exciting when that dunk happens to come in the form of an alley-oop. As far as taking the cake goes, a reverse alley-oop is probably the way to go. Cue Oregon State’s Jared Cunningham in this video from Thursday night’s win over Howard that The Dagger shared with us:
If you have to lose a game by 33 points, you might as well pick up some style points along the way. Fortunately for VMI, Stan Okoye is an athletic freak. Yes, this is the first time I’ve ever seen him play. After you see the dunk he threw down on Wednesday night against Ohio State, you’ll agree. Check out this video that The Dagger passed along:
