Lob City. Lob Angeles. We get it. It’s the all-above-the-rim, all-the-time excitement about the Los Angeles Clippers, driven by consummate point guard Chris Paul and eminent throwdown finishers Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
But the No. 1 alley-oopingest team through Wednesday’s schedule plays on the opposite coast, in a town and building whose basketball traditions have been a lot less gaudy and a lot more fundamental. Back in the day, anyway.
The New York Knicks have the most successful alley-oop dunk plays with 20. Center Tyson Chandler tops all individuals with 12, according to my anonymous stats guru/compiler.
The Clippers and their Staples Center roomies, the Lakers, are tied for second with 18 such plays. Miami (15), Washington (13), Minnesota (12) and Atlanta and Portland (10 each) line up after that.
Individually, the Clippers’ Jordan is second with 11 finishes. Miami’s LeBron James and Washington’s JaVale McGee have 10 each, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Lakers big man Andrew Bynum are next at seven and Griffin is tied with Charlotte’s Byron Mullens with six of them.
For every oop, of course, there has to be an alley. But Paul hasn’t yet cracked the top five among set-up men. The leader at the front end of the highlight play is Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio with 11. The next four are all tied with nine: New York’s Carmelo Anthony, Charlotte’s D.J. Augustin, Toronto’s Jose Calderon and Miami’s Norris Cole.
Speaking of Rubio, the Timberwolves’ rookie also ranks high in a few other “intangibles” categories. He has assisted on 42 3-point field goals, second in the NBA only to New Jersey’s Deron Williams (53). He has drawn eight charges, second to Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins (10). And Rubio and Cousins are tied at 14 for offensive fouls drawn overall.
And for what it’s worth, according to Basketball-Reference.com, there never has been a stats line quite like the one Rubio hung on the Detroit Pistons Wednesday night (thanks to the folks at Wolves’ blog CanisHoopus.com).
Lol this article is so biased
The Clippers have played the fewest games of any team in the NBA (12) so they actually lead the league in alley-oops per game with 1.5 per game. The per game averages for the teams listed above are as follows:
Los Angeles Clippers 1.50 per game
New York Knicks 1.43 per game
Los Angeles Lakers 1.20 per game
Miami Heat 1.15 per game
Washington Wizards 0.93 per game
Minnesota Timberwolves 0.86 per game
Portland Trail Blazers 0.71 per game
Atlanta Hawks 0.67 per game
What an arbitrarily riduculous stat, yet so enlightening…TNT should offer you a job right now! you could def take this guys place!!
Trust me no one can take Steve’s place. Sorry Steve A this is a silly article alley oops don’t get you to the playoffs and the way the Knicks are playing they need to be less focused on alleys and stop making the oops every game. They lost to the Sun’s who just so happen to play less defense then they do. YIKES
New Jersey’s Derrick Williams
Clearly, this guy does not watch basketball. SPELLCHECK ;D
actually its derron williams, so shows what u know bro
Who cares? Knicks have the most alley oops but have a losing record. Knicks have 1 great player, 1 very good player and tyson chandler can rebound and defend. I dont know if anyone else on that team would get minutes anywhere else
They should get Rudy Fernandez and Marc Gasol
PG:Rubio/Barea
SG:Rudy/Johnson
SF:Derrick Williams
PF:Kevin Love
C:Marc Gasol
it sounds like a good trade, but who would they send away for them?
Thats right, New york is the # 1 for making Alley-oop.. but They have to consider that the Knicks Played 14 games already compare to only 12 games for the Clippers played.. Go Blake and CP3, show them the real SHOWTME!!
Ok Clipper fans you get your wish, lead the league in alley oops. Now do you want a cookie?
Ricky Rubio + Blake Griffin + DeAndre Jordan = All-Star Lob Contest. lol
I can’t wait for this guys next article, it will go something like this – “Derrick Rose better than Shane Battier…Think again. You may think Derrick Rose is the better player, but Shane Battier has actually scored more points than Rose when comparing both these players careers. Which means Shane Battier is the better player”. Steve Aschburner…you are broken.
Dude there is no way in hell shane battier is better than derrick rose, and yes he has more points hes been playing a hell of alot longer. I cant believe were even having this discussion with battier and rose compared, its ridiculous.
Of course derrick rose is a better player. It just demonstrates how stupid this guys article is, he gets statistics that are completely out of context. He says the Clips arnt the real ally-oop team because the Knicks have the leagues most alley-oops, but thats only because the Clips have played less games than the Knicks.
Should that be called “monster” finish????
alley-oop, stats aren’t that useless… the clippers sold more tickets in their first 12 games and have more fans this season because of LOB city than all of their previous seasons in franchise history… combined!
Maybe he should post the next ARTICLE ON FIRE NO D’ ANTONI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steve…. all this hype about the miami – laker game and this mornings blog is on the bumb knicks lobbing the ball??? You’ve got to be be pro- Kobe not to talk about how he got locked up last night and how LBJ killed his lakers. (like he does year after year ). Even Kenny Smith & TNT wanna promote video’s and talk about Bynum’s drop step during and after the most anticipated game. But let the shoe be on the other foot. ESPN TNT NBA.com all would’ve been talking “Lebron Fails” “Kobe on the throne” “This is what seperates Kobe. And this is not a kobe-lebron beef i have. It’s a why cant we call a spade a spade THIS MORNING and give props for THIS game!!
Man…some people shouldn’t be allowed to comment on the internet.
Chris Paul is no BARON DAVIS~~~ thats why
Kevin love and blake griffin square off tonight, kevin love is a work horse, but so is blake, 2 totally different games. Kevin love is able to average 4 more points because hes the main option on there team, blake griffin is surrounded by amazing team mates, more options,. Dont get me wrong though kevin love is an all star any way u spin it, he came prepared as always, much respect. It seems to me though this year the clippers arent making blake as much an option, hes been standing in paint clearly open yelling for ball and has been over looked a fw times i thought, especially by randy foye and chauncey billups. I would like too see blake griffin spot up and shoot faster, he sometimes gets ball 15 to 17 feet and takes his time, allowing for a miss, if he just shot hed get more points, and if blake worked on free throws up to 70 percent hed average 25 points a game easily. definetely 2 of the top 10 forwards in league right now.
umm.. did you include the fact that Wade has been out for 5 games this season? when he returns 100% you’ll see the best lobs of them all .
These stats doesn’t get any team to the playoffs, but definetely make a lot of fans around the world. These are the homeruns of Baseball and the Hail Marys of football. U need entertainment, this is what u get!
I’ve been preaching this for a while now. I’ve been telling everyone, trying to explain to everyone that the Knicks just won’t be able to do it. It’s not their fault, necessarily and it’s not too complicated either.
The Knicks were on the right track a year and a half ago.
To read more go too http://www.nbathroughmyveins.wordpress.com
Since both LA teams have 18 each….collectively we are Lob City.