The NBA’s 10 Best Dunks This Week

A number of mainstays of the top 10 dunks of the week are featured, including Chicago’s resident creator of posters, as well as two former teammates with the Oklahoma CIty Thunder serving up facials on the fast break.

LeBron James also delivers a pair of jams in this week’s installment of the top 10 dunks in the NBA.

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10. Kenneth Faried frightens Kevin Durant
It’s tough to blame Kevin Durant for getting out of the way at the last second. I mean, if Kenneth Faried, who is known as “Manimal” for a reason, has the ball and is coming at me, I’m probably moving out of the way, too.

9. Terrence Jones flies it in over Joel Freeland
Because Terrence Jones isn’t a household name, he didn’t receive too much recognition for his full-on poster of Joel Freeland in Houston’s against Portland earlier this week.

Here’s credit where credit is due. Jones has been solid as the Rockets starting power forward, averaging 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in his time as a first-time starter.

8. Jeff Taylor comes a few degrees short of a 360
Add another 90 degrees and Jeff Taylor probably finds himself a few spots higher on this week’s list.

But Jeff Taylor has received plenty of recognition on these lists before. He’s an incredibly underrated athlete and has sneaky-good hops that will put defenders on a poster if they’re not aware of what the Swedish-born forward is capable of.

7. LeBron James dunks over David West
Yeah, that’s about what all of us expected when Luis Scola ended up defending LeBron James on an island, right?

6. Josh McRoberts dunks it over his former Laker teammate
Since we now have an excuse to discuss Josh McRoberts, let me be the first to congratulate him on defying the odds by nearly leading the Charlotte Bobcats in assists per, only coming up a few percentage points short of Kemba Walker.

McRoberts is averaging a healthy 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game this year, but he’ll only receive attention when he has dunks such as this one over Pau Gasol and the Lakers.

5. Jeff Green flies down the lane for the dunk vs. the Clippers
One of my favorite dunkers this year, as he should be in everybody’s mind, Jeff Green has seemingly carved out residence on each week’s top 10 dunks list.

Although he surprisingly makes this week’s list without a tremendous poster, he does provide enough theatrics on this aggressive fast-break slam against the Los Angeles Clippers to earn himself a spot.

4. Russell Westbrook streaks down Main Street for the dunk vs. Denver
Hey, Denver, next time Russell Westbrook is picking up a full head of steam and has the ball, it might be best to at least attempt to stop him from annihilating your rim.

3. James Harden dunks over Marreese Speights
Hey, Golden State, take a note from Denver’s mistake of not stopping Russell Westbrook on a fast break and learn to stop high-flying, athletic guards from getting easy looks and dunking over your defenders.

2. LeBron James with the rare no-look reverse dunk
Once again, LeBron James is in a situation here where he makes the execution and ensuing result look a whole lot easier than it actually is.

Off a Mario Chalmers‘ miss, LeBron runs from the other side of the court, anticipates where the ball is going to carom, grabs the ball off the rim, and then dunks it backwards without even looking.

In fact, LeBron wasn’t even sure he was in the right place until he turned around on the way down.

1. Taj Gibson makes Nikola Vucevic take a seat
Taj Gibson seemingly makes a living by powerfully dunking over defenders — whether big or small — and putting them on ferocious posters.

Props to Nikola Vucevic for attempting to contest this dunk, but I’ve yet to see a defender successfully swat away a dunk attempt by Taj.