Slam Dunk contestants honor past with array of old dunks
The four players in the Sprite Slam Dunk Championship paid a fitting tribute to past legends on Saturday by using old dunks that men like Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Julius Erving had invented several decades ago.
Though DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka and Jevale McGee each tried their best to imitate dunks we have all seen many times before, it was Blake Griffin’s dunk over the front bumper of a small sedan — a tribute to the long history of dunking over props — that stole the show as the most original of the recycled dunks.
“I wanted to turn back the clock all the way to 2009 with that one,” Griffin said of his tribute dunk to Nate Robinson, who dunked over the 6’10″ Dwight Howard to win the 2009 Slam Dunk Championship. “But hurdling a 6’10″ tall man is kinda hard so I changed it to the front of a small car. That way I could say I dunked over a car, even though it was just the front of a small one.”
This year marked the 11th straight year that players have honored past legends of the dunk contest by recycling old dunks.
Dwight Howard, Sixers watch Game 6 annihilation from hotel rooms
Satisfied with their seemingly comfortable Game 6 win on paper, the Sixers elected to watch the actual 114-89 flogging from their respective homes and hotel rooms.
Haphazard elbows from Dwight Howard in the previous game knocked himself (suspension) and Courtney Lee (fractured sinus) from being able to participate in last night’s game. The absence of two of Orlando’s starters gave the Sixers a commanding edge in Game 6 which they managed to turn into a debilitating handicap.
“No [Dwight] Howard, no [Courtney] Lee…and we get baked worse than we have in any game this series,” said Tony DiLeo. “I guess we actually were better off letting Howard camp out in the lane.”
Dalembert's nine solid minutes of tough on-ball defense not enough, Sixers fall
The 76ers secured the moral victory in Game 2 by holding Dwight Howard to only a modest 11-point, 10-rebound double-double, but took the demoralizing loss on Wednesday 96-87 to the Magic.
Andre Miller led the way with 30 points for the Sixers, who out shot the Magic from the floor, but Orlando took the edge on the free throw line making 22 shots to Philly’s 12.
Samuel Dalembert and Theo Ratliff combined for nine fouls and a hard-earned five points. Dalembert now has eight fouls and nine points in just over 26 minutes of play in the two playoffs games.
“I’m guarding Dwight-freakin’-Howard and the refs are calling everything on me,” said Dalembert. “My flying D-Bear roundhouse foot-punch isn’t actually a foul…or at least it shouldn’t be. It’s the only chance anyone has at stopping guys like Howard and Chris Paul.”
