In the most shocking development since Ricky Martin came out of the closet, I'm happy to announce that the top spot in our Top 10 Dunkers in the NBA series goes to Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers. In honor of Griffin's accomplishment, I will do the following:
a) wear the official Clippers tearaway pants that I got for $20 at the Clips-TWolves game in January every Monday for the rest of the season.
b) dedicate this week's T.W.I.H. to Blake by listing his top 10 dunks of the year (which is extremely difficult to do, there are a lot to choose from).
c) create a Top 10 Blake Griffin Dunks page to keep a running tab as the season goes on. Below you'll find our normal Top 10 Dunker compilation for Griffin, which is over nine minutes long and contains 40 dunks.
10. Two-Handed Alley-Oop on the Break against the Toronto Raptors (February 13, 2011)
9. Thunderous Putback Jam against the New York Knicks (November 20, 2010)
8. Powerful Flush right on top of Nenad Krstic's Head (November 4, 2010)
7. Reverse Alley-Oop against the Golden State Warriors (January 22, 2011)
6. 50-Foot Alley-Oop from Randy Foye against the Charlotte Bobcats (January 29, 2011)
5. Steal and Reverse Jam against the Pistons (November 12, 2010)
4. One-Handed Alley-Oop against the Nuggets (January 5, 2011)
3. Alley-Oop Dunk over Kyle Korver (February 2, 2011)
2. Amazing Catch and Alley-Oop against the Minnesota Timberwolves (December 20, 2010)
1. Spin Move and Dunk over Danilo Gallinari (November 20, 2010)
The Colton Index:
Teams of the Week:
 | 1. Houston Rockets(from 13th to 12th) - Wins vs Phoenix, vs Charlotte, vs Boston, vs Utah. A nice homestand for the Rockets, with four wins in a row and a 16-point win over the Celtics. That Thabeet trade must be working wonders for them. |
 | 2. Denver Nuggets (stays at 9th) - Wins at New Orleans, at Atlanta; Losses at Orlando, at Miami. The Nuggets split a tough week of games, but are still 9-4 since the Melo trade. I'm surprised that folks were surprised at Denver's stellar play since they lost their franchise player - they played well for most of the season despite all of the rumors and drama and didn't miss a beat when Melo was out for an extended period of time when his sister died. They are a fun team to watch with Ty Lawson running the show. (While we're here, I hope you all read this recent Alan Hahn piece on the Knicks new acquisition.) |
 | 3. Toronto Raptors (from 28th to 26th) - Wins vs Washington, at Oklahoma City; Loss at Detroit. Was Kevin Durant upset about yet-another early exit by Rick Barnes and the Texas Longhorns? (Note: check out this post on NCAA coaches underperforming or overperforming their seeds.) That's the only way I can explain Toronto beating the Thunder in OKC. |
Teams of the Weak:
 | 1. Golden State Warriors(from 19th to 21st) - Losses at Sacramento, vs Dallas, at Phoenix, at Dallas. Just this past week, I heard the words "playoff push" and "Warriors" used in the same sentence. This current four-game losing streak ought to kill that nonsense. |
 | 2. Los Angeles Clippers (stays at 23rd) - Losses at Memphis, vs Philadelphia, vs Phoenix; Win vs Cleveland. I don't really want to be the first to say it, but I know at least some of you are thinking the same thing: Blake's dunks haven't been quite as good since Baron Davis got traded. There, I said it. Also, if you're going to pull a steak knife out at center court at the Staples Center, wouldn't you do it after the Clips were about to play human dunk-rag J.J. Hickson and the Cavs? Unless it was Hickson holding the knife. |
 | 3. Boston Celtics (from 4th to 6th) - Losses at New Jersey, at Houston; Win vs Indiana, at New Orleans. Does Boston have real problems or are they just coasting for the rest of the season with plans to simply turn on the switch come playoff time again? |
Updated with Games as of Sunday March 20th
| Rk | Move | Team | W-L | Last 15 | Avg Diff | SOS Rk | Colton |
| 1 | - |  | 56-13 | 11-4 | 6.3 | 23 | 60.69 |
| 2 | +1 |  | 50-20 | 12-3 | 6.46 | 20 | 56.94 |
| 3 | -1 |  | 49-19 | 12-3 | 6.59 | 29 | 56.86 |
| 4 | +1 |  | 49-21 | 10-5 | 4.06 | 15 | 54.75 |
| 5 | +1 |  | 48-22 | 8-7 | 7.11 | 26 | 54.73 |
| 6 | -2 | | 49-19 | 10-5 | 6.25 | 30 | 54.62 |
| 7 | +1 |  | 45-24 | 10-5 | 3.36 | 14 | 51.65 |
| 8 | -1 |  | 44-26 | 10-5 | 5.39 | 25 | 50.95 |
| 9 | - | | 41-29 | 10-5 | 3.96 | 2 | 50.14 |
| 10 | +2 |  | 40-30 | 9-6 | 1.31 | 11 | 46.32 |
| 11 | - |  | 38-32 | 9-6 | 1.61 | 3 | 46.02 |
| 12 | +1 | | 37-34 | 11-4 | 1.69 | 7 | 45.54 |
| 13 | -3 |  | 40-31 | 7-8 | 1.73 | 6 | 45.48 |
| 14 | - |  | 40-30 | 6-9 | 0.16 | 28 | 43.20 |
| 15 | - |  | 36-34 | 10-5 | 1.74 | 27 | 43.11 |
| 16 | - |  | 35-33 | 8-7 | -0.31 | 9 | 42.84 |
| 17 | - |  | 35-34 | 7-8 | 0.78 | 21 | 41.57 |
| 18 | - |  | 36-34 | 5-10 | -1.01 | 17 | 39.87 |
| 19 | +1 |  | 30-40 | 5-10 | -1.56 | 16 | 35.31 |
| 20 | +2 |  | 28-41 | 7-8 | -1.12 | 22 | 34.73 |
| 21 | -2 | | 30-40 | 4-11 | -3.16 | 8 | 34.64 |
| 22 | -1 |  | 28-41 | 5-10 | -3.96 | 4 | 33.91 |
| 23 | - | | 27-44 | 6-9 | -3.1 | 10 | 33.09 |
| 24 | - |  | 25-45 | 5-10 | -4.14 | 13 | 30.06 |
| 25 | - |  | 22-46 | 6-9 | -5.6 | 19 | 27.64 |
| 26 | +2 | | 20-49 | 6-9 | -5.49 | 24 | 25.90 |
| 27 | - |  | 17-51 | 4-11 | -5.37 | 18 | 24.96 |
| 28 | -2 |  | 17-54 | 4-11 | -5.76 | 5 | 24.27 |
| 29 | - |  | 17-51 | 2-13 | -7.79 | 12 | 21.16 |
| 30 | - |  | 13-55 | 5-10 | -10.54 | 1 | 19.07 |
Note: Updating from last week...if the NBA combined the conferences and simply took the best 16 teams for the playoffs, the first-round match-ups would look like this if the season ended today (to account for differences in strength of schedule, I use the Colton Index full-season run of just wins and losses to rank order the teams):
1. San Antonio (56-13) vs. 16. Utah (36-34)
2. LA Lakers (50-20) vs. 15. Phoenix (35-33)
3. Chicago (49-19) vs. 14. Houston (37-34)
4. Dallas (49-21) vs. 13. Atlanta (40-30)
5. Boston (49-19) vs. 12. Memphis (38-32)
6. Miami (48-22) vs. 11. Portland (40-30)
7. Oklahoma City (45-24) vs. 10. New Orleans (40-31)
8. Orlando (44-26) vs. 9. Denver (41-29)
Effectively, the bottom three teams in the East would be replaced by Utah, Phoenix and Houston.
Plan Accordingly:
Must watch games this week (all times ET):
Mon 3/21: Boston at New York (7:00 PM)
Tues 3/22: Chicago at Atlanta (8:00 PM, TNT); Phoenix at LA Lakers (10:30 PM, TNT) - TNT Night moved to Tuesday this week due to NCAA tourney
Weds 3/23: Memphis at Boston (7:30 PM); Orlando at New York (8:00 PM, ESPN); San Antonio at Denver (10:30 PM, ESPN)
Thurs 3/24: New Orleans at Utah (9:00 PM)
Fri 3/25: Philadelphi at Miami (7:30 PM); Memphis at Chicago (8:00 PM); New Orleans at Phoenix (10:00 PM); San Antonio at Portland (10:00 PM); LA Clippers at LA Lakers (10:30 PM)
Sat 3/26: Toronto at LA Clippers (10:30 PM) - This is the best I could come up with. When all else fails, put the Clippers game on.
Sun 3/27: Houston at Miami (6:00 PM); San Antonio at Memphis (6:00 PM); Portland at Oklahoma City (8:00 PM, ESPN); New Orleans at LA Lakers (9:30); Dallas at Phoenix (10:30 PM, ESPN)
Top Dunkers:
Finishing our series, here's #1 on our list of the Top 10 Dunkers in the NBA.
Team: Los Angeles Clippers
Pos: Freak of Nature
School: Oklahoma
Height/Weight: 6'10" 251 lbs
Dunk Signature: YouTube-friendly Half-court alley-oops, monsterous posterizations over unsuspecting foreigners, making Ralph Lawler scream "Oh me, oh my!", galloping back down the court sideways with mouthpiece hanging out.
Previous Weeks: #10. Russell Westbrook
#9. DeMar DeRozan
#8. Dwyane Wade
#7. Rudy Gay
#6. Josh Smith
#5. Derrick Rose
#4. J.R. Smith
#3. Andre Iguodala
#2. LeBron James
Dunks of the Week:
Here are the top 5 Dunks for the week ending 3/20, as voted on by the Wegobomber Dunk Committee. We could've had a Top 5 just from the Oklahoma City-Miami game on Wednesday.
5. Russell Westbrook rocks the cradle with the breakaway Highlight. Reel. Finish.
4. Amare Stoudemire recovers the loose ball and Mosgov's poor Greg Monroe of the Detroit Pistons.
3. Tony Allen gets the nice alley-oop feed from O.J. Mayo and throws down the two-handed tomahawk slam.
2. LeBron James leaves Kevin Durant in the dust and finishes an impressive reverse baseline jam.
1. Dwyane Wade with the monster slam over Kendrick Perkins, with a celebratory Cabbage Patch.
Bonus Video: It's too bad we can't add this one to the mix.
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