March Madness may have grabbed the attention of many basketball fans this month, but the NBA gave us some of the season's most absurd and flat-out disrespectful highlights in March.
Lots of dunks, mean crossovers, heat-check jumpers, and even players officiating (oh yes, you read that right) have happened in recent weeks. Some of these plays are such that you jump out of your seat the moment it happens.
Here are the most rude ones.
Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul was angry enough with an umpire earlier this month that he not only drew a technical foul, but also responded in a similar manner.
During the Warriors broadcast, a perfectly placed camera captured the whole thing, with Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington expressing his desire to develop a future Hall of Fame point guard in the shot. I also captured him walking around.
Incredibly, this wasn't the only moment of deliberation between Paul and the referee this month. A few matches later, Paul was sent off by Tony Brothers, who called him a “TikToker”.
Vasilije Misic has long been one of basketball's greatest showmen, but American fans haven't had much exposure to the 30-year-old former EuroLeague MVP.
This season was his first in the NBA, and there were plenty of highlight passing and ball-handling moments. But nothing compares to adding one of the greatest players of all time to your deck.
A breakup of the play saw Micic catch a pass in the corner, drive Kevin Durant baseline, drop him with a behind-the-back right-to-left crossover, and pump-fake Bradley Beal to his feet. I floated it up and dropped it in. layup.
Nikola Jokic is starting to make this play a part of his routine. If he falls asleep for even a second after scoring against the Denver Nuggets, he'll find someone down the floor for an open dunk.
He did it twice in a matter of seconds against the Utah Jazz, a game in which the Nuggets were already decimating the sub-.500 Jazz.
In both cases, as soon as he received the ball from the referee, he chucked it across the court and aimed it perfectly into the end zone (at least the goal line). Denver got a wide-open jam from Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon from a full-court dime.
Every week, Victor Wenbanyama does something that defies explanation.
Against the Memphis Grizzlies in early March, he made a stand-still block to keep the inbounds and retrieve it before starting a fast break with an outlet pass. Then he sprinted to the other side of the floor and took off, catching a lob behind his body and throwing it down.
The numbers alone are impressive for a 7-foot-4 rookie. But such a highlight is when he moves like this: nba streetStretching Monroe is phenomenal.
Perhaps more than anyone near this play, the biggest victim of Andre Jackson Jr.'s disrespect may have been at the rim.
The rim stands 10 feet above the floor. Even in the NBA, on most possessions, no one touches it. I'm not used to being cleared.
But earlier this month, Jackson exploded off the floor (perhaps taking a leap off the Sacramento Kings) and placed his chest against the rim for a follow-up dunk.
As a rim protector, Brook Lopez has a lot of experience with opponents trying to dunk on him. A lot of things have been successful, but that doesn't mean he's excited about making them happen.
One poster is bad enough, especially for a high-end defender like Lopez. But getting buried under the rim twice by the same player is tough in one game.
The first one happened in the first quarter, during the transition period of the half. The second came just before halftime, when Domantas Sabonis stood up and finished with even more ferocity than he showed during the first jam.
Rude's double help pushes this combo into the top 10.
Like Brook Lopez, Victor Wembaneyama will probably be caught a few times before the end of his career.
He's already the league leader in blocks per game, and some players will make it their personal mission to create posters depicting him.
Well, Golden State Warriors rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis already has it. He got up and landed a left-handed slunk (when a player throws down rather than actually dunking) into Wenbanyama's face.
Similar to Victor Wembaneyama, Anthony Edwards has quickly developed into one of the league's most consistent highlight machines.
His most talked about moments are usually dunks. But against the Indiana Pacers, that disdain was directed at the defense.
Edwards bravely missed a free throw on one end, keeping the Minnesota Timberwolves' lead at two points. This gave the Pacers hope that they might be able to tie the game before the final buzzer.
But once Indiana broke down the floor, Edwards chased the play, timed his jump perfectly, hit his head on the rim and wiped out Aaron Nesmith's layup.
The Oklahoma City Thunder is probably already cooked. The Los Angeles Lakers led by 17 points in the fourth quarter before D'Angelo Russell's personal 9-0 run started, but it really cost them the night.
These triples were far from your run-of-the-mill catch-and-shoot opportunities. All three of Russell's buckets were contested.
To be honest, that explanation doesn't do justice to the defense of the first and third games. It got even better with LeBron claiming he raised it before the final shot.
Early in the game against the Washington Wizards, Collin Sexton picked up a loose ball and broke it the other way down the floor.
Near the 3-point line, he threw a lob to Keyontae George. Rather than trying to score, the rookie had the ability to notice Sexton's cut, change his plan mid-jump, and simply deflect the pass off the glass.
It doesn't matter if he was heading to the rim for a rebound or nailing a double-oop. Sexton did score, and George informed the scorer's table that he was going to pass the ball.
In a preview of a potential NBA Finals game between the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics, Aaron Gordon was seen strutting like a lion from the dunker spot during Nikola Jokic's post-up.
Gordon started breaking towards the rim before Jokic swung a hook shot toward the basket. After the missed shot bounced softly and passed right in front of the rim, Gordon caught the ball with one hand well below the basket. In one motion, he spiked it furiously back into the basket.
The timing of the jump may not have been perfect, but it didn't matter. In fact, the split second difference just made the finish all the more spectacular.
The fact that it happened against the best team in the league (at least by record and goal differential) and during Denver's 2-0 win over Boston on the season hurts its place in these rankings. It wasn't.
It's hard to imagine many plays more spectacular (or disrespectful) than Aaron Gordon's dunk, but fifth place is a testament to the quality of March highlights in the NBA.
Jaylen Green, who has been completely out of sorts the past few weeks, stole a pass at the top of the key from Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simmons. As if that wasn't bad enough, Simons was the only player when Green reached the opposite basket.
Simmons tried to contest the dunk attempt, but that only made the highlight more spectacular.
Simmons reached the top of his jump just as Green cocked the ball all the way behind his head. As Simmons began to descend, Green floated up and hammered home.
The Atlanta Hawks went on to lose this game, but for the first two points to come from a poster as emphatic as this one is just as disrespectful as the start of the game.
The video of Jalen Johnson's dunk over Austin Reeves is good, but a still image might be even better.
After the game, when asked about his play, Reeves simply told reporters, “I don't want my opinion.''
This shot is outrageous.
With the game tied, Kyrie Irving caught an inbounds pass from a baseline screen with 2.8 seconds left. He took two offhand dribbles toward the free-throw line, reaching near his elbow and hoisting a floater over the outstretched arm of Nikola Jokic.
It was a peaceful decision, and the Dallas Mavericks defeated the reigning champion Denver Nuggets.
Perhaps that alone would have been enough to get it on the list. However, Irving, who is right-handed, plays such a difficult shot under such pressure. left It's unimaginable.
Few players (if any) would have thought to use their off-hand in this situation. Kylie did, and it wasn't just a make-up in a lucky bank-in or something. It was pure. It barely hit the back of the rim.
As ESPN's Ryan Ruocco declared after the game, it was “an unforgettable ingenuity!”
Turnabouts are often considered fair play in the NBA. After years of dunking on opponents (a habit that earned him the nickname “John the Baptist”), Collins had perhaps the highlight of the year earlier this month. .
Collins and the Utah Jazz were mostly back on defense after turning the ball over, but there was a scramble and Anthony Edwards took advantage. After catching a pass from Nickell Alexander-Walker near the free-throw line, Edwards huddled and took off from outside the restricted area, meeting a competing Collins in the air.
The 6-foot-4 guard's head was at least level with the rim when the 6-foot-4 big man collided. From there, an unstoppable force overcame an immovable object, thanks to Edwards reaching towards the rim like Michael Jordan in the movie. space jam.
His hands didn't reach the rim, which earned him another spot on the list, but that did little to change the level of disdain here.
