Who is the real Lob City? For those of you who do not know, Lob City is the name in which the national media placed on the Los Angeles Clippers the moment Chris Paul was delivered to LA. The Clippers who already had the 2011 Slam Dunk Champion(given, not earned) Blake Griffin and 6’11 human pogo stick DeAndre Jordan(Texas A&M) needed only one thing to set the media ablaze and bestow on them the name “Lob City”; a point guard who love’s to throw the lob(don’t believe me, ask Tyson Chandler); insert Chris Paul.
The contender for Lob City? Lexington, Kentucky. The Thoroughbred Capital's Wildcats are equipped with some high flyers in their own right, names like Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist should resonate with any college basketball fan. Let us also not forget sophomore Terrence Jones, who’s dunk last season against South Carolina still wakes Sam Muldrow from his slumber: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7DBaOuofw. And, I would be remised if I did not mention my personal favorite on the team, the Commonwealth’s very own: Darius Miller. Not sure which one he is, here is your reminder.
After that gushing description of the Wildcat’s personnel and the 2-0 lead in youtube clips linked I have already made it pretty clear that Kentucky is “my team”. You should not however read that statement or anything that proceeds it as; “well, he thinks Kentucky is Lob City” because I will not be stating at any point in this article which team I believe to be the true “Lob City”. That will be left up to you. With all of that said, let us begin the debate of Who is the Real Lob City?
Important Notes:
*There is no official record for lob’s completed, thus the statistical analysis that follows will focus directly on dunks recorded.
*College game is 40 minutes, NBA game is 48 minutes.
*All dunk statistics for the Los Angeles Clippers were gathered from the cbssports.com NBA Dunk-O-Meter.
*All statistics for Kentucky’s dunk totals were gathered from sifting through play-by-play transcripts on espn.com and does not include the game verses Marist College.
The Case for the Clippers:
12 Games
Total Dunks: 69
Dunks Per Game: 5.75
Dunks Per Minute: .1197
Dunks Per 40 Minutes: 4.791
Recap: These numbers are pretty astounding, especially when you consider that two of the players on the 15 man roster; DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, have combined for 56 of the teams 69 dunks. To me this says everyone in the NBA knows that dunking is a huge proponent of Jordan and Griffin’s game, and they still cannot do anything about it.
The Case for the Wildcats:
18 Games
Total Dunks: 88
Dunks Per Game: 4.888
Dunks Per Minute: .1222
Dunks Per 48 Minutes: 5.865
Recap: The number of charges taking in an average NBA game pales in comparison to the charges taken in a college game. Combine that with no defensive three second call and the multitude of teams playing zones against more athletic teams(Kentucky fits that category) and it is equally impressive that Kentucky has amassed this many dunks. The Cats rely on three constituents to jolt the fans out of their seats; Anthony Davis- 46 dunks, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist- 18, and Terrence Jones- 16.
*A quick tangent on Anthony Davis. Of his 239 points(not counting his 23 against Marist) he has scored 184 points from the field, 92 of those points are from dunks. It is pretty simple math from there, 50% of his points from the field have been dunks. There is only one word to describe that: otherworldly. I can also say as a person who has seen every game, at least 25 of those 46 dunks have been off of lobs(I'm not saying, I'm just saying).
After all the youtube clips and data provided, I have but one question; Who is the real Lob City?
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