Tag: Dunks

Nerlens Noel dunking all over opponents this season

With his six against the Magic, Noel has already thrown down 71 dunks this year. He’s shooting a career-best 67% from the floor this season.

Watching Nerlens Noel on Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic, it would be hard to believe that the Thunder center had missed seven of the last nine games with a left ankle sprain and corresponding soreness.

Noel returned to the starting lineup against the Magic, playing 30 minutes of game time, logging 14 points and seven rebounds. He was one of six Thunder players in double-digits.

On Wednesday, Noel made seven of his 10 attempts from the field. Six of those were emphatic dunks.

He’s shooting a career-best 67% from the floor this season and has seen his point production rise to 8.1 per game from 4.8 a year ago.

Noel told Maddie Lee of the Oklahoman that as long as his teammates can get it around the rim, he’s going to put it down.

“I just keep telling them,” Noel said recently of his alley-oop chemistry with his point guards, “Throw the ball up. I’m going to go get it.’”

As noted by Joe Mussatto, through 37 games this season, Noel already has 71 dunks. He had 76 dunks in 77 games last year.

The drastic increase can be partially attributed to playing alongside four-time assists leader, Chris Paul.

“You saw what C threw me,” Noel told The Oklahoman Saturday, after another alley-oop-filled performance. “He’s the only one who’s going to throw it that high with that confidence.”

Noel has confidence in his teammates to throw it up, and they’ve got confidence in him to be able to throw it down.

So far this season, it’s proved to be a winning combination in Oklahoma City.

Ranking all of Zion Williamson’s dunks with the Pelicans ahead of his debut

Zion Williamson still hasn’t made his regular-season debut, but he’s been putting on a show in warmups.

Zion Williamson hasn’t played a lick of NBA basketball yet and he won’t until next week when the Pelicans play the Spurs.

We, the basketball viewing public, miss him so much. We love everything about him. His smile, his charm, all that. We miss it.

But more than anything? We miss his dunks. His loud, thunderous dunks that send his opponents into purgatory with the rest of the souls he’s captured underneath the rim.

It’s a spectacular thing to watch, really. At 19 years old, he just moves dudes out of the way and slams the ball down so hard that you feel like it may leave a crater in the court upon impact.

It’s been stressful without seeing him for so long, but don’t worry. If you need your Zion fix, we’ve got you covered here. We’re ranking every single dunk he’s done in public since joining the Pelicans — from casual pregame throwdowns to the jaw-dropping “WTF” dunks that defy physics.

Here they are.

8. Zion’s Dunks in Staples Center

Oh, you know, nothing to see here. Just Williamson literally flying in Staples Center and catching a lob. This was SUCH a tease from the Pelicans and Williamson.

7.  Zion’s casual Warmup dunk

Why, no, that’s not a car backfiring. That’s just Zion casually throwing down. Pay it no mind.

This poor, poor rim. It deserved better.

6. Zion’s putback vs. the jazz

I honestly didn’t think it was humanly possible to jump back up so quickly after jumping into another large human being.

Turns out it’s still not. Because Zion Williamson isn’t human. Duh.

5. Is this a fisher-price rim? Because…

Williamson absolutely destroys this rim with a double-pump reverse jam. His head pretty cleanly gets to the rim, too. Man. This is child’s play for the Pelicans’ rookie.

5. Another casual warmup highlight

Okay, so this dunk seems pretty casually. But it’s honestly pretty impressive. He’s above the rim going across his body and throws it down with his right hand.

This is, at least, a 6.5 out of 10 and this is Williamson dunking in practice while returning from a knee injury. INSANE.

4. Lonzo ball’s lob to zion

Okay, I’m not sure where Ball threw this pass from. I’m also not sure where Zion came from to catch this and dunk it. And this is in practice, y’all. Come on.

3. a Between the legs Standing dunk!?!?

Let’s be honest. There are NBA players who can’t dunk without a running start. That’s just fine! Most of the population can’t dunk at all, so that’s still impressive.

But Williamson is different. He’s doing between-the-legs dunks after barely moving. How does one have this much power in their legs?

2. a vertical 360!?!?!

Repeat the last paragraph but also add in the minor details that he’s busting a 360 (!) in the middle of a game. This is just ridiculous.

1. The hawks should’ve been relegated

In hindsight, this is probably where their terrible season started. Williamson pretty much just dunked all over them in his preseason debut. If you thought there was any chance Williamson wasn’t real before this game, it ended right there.

Honestly? I’m shocked that Damian Jones didn’t retire immediately after being included in Williamson’s first poster.

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