Anthony Edwards gave us by far the greatest poster dunk of the 2020s thus far, sending Yuta Watanabe of the Raptors to the shadow realm.
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The Raptors did not have a single field goal for the last 8:23 of their 3rd quarter. The Wolves went on a 23-1 run in that period to claw themselves back in the game. Though they still took the L on the night, Anthony Edwards came away with the play of the season.
Edwards had missed his first 10 shots of the game thus far. He was ripe for a made field goal, but there was nobody on the planet who saw this detonation coming.
A terrible closeout by DeAndre Bembry allowed Edwards a lane towards the baseline. He took the ball to his left after faking a 3-pointer, getting free of Bembry. What happened later will be the stuff of legend, even if Edwards hangs up his boots today.
A power dribble by Edwards was followed by two explosive steps. The second one allowed him to put his head right at the rim. While doing so, Edwards also caught a body – that of Japanese Yuta Watanabe.
The 6’8″ forward could only haplessly give a Phil Jones-like expression as Edwards yammed it all over him. Just take a look at the force that the rookie wing put into that posterizer.
ANTHONY EDWARDS. MY GOODNESS. 😳 pic.twitter.com/kzjzzOLAdf
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 20, 2021
Anthony Edwards receives praise from all of NBA Twitter for his monster dunk
The internet understandably went berserk at the rookie’s play of the year candidate.
Look how far out he is at the peak of his vertical and he still threw it down like that 💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/iUA1gARKCu
— Kenny Holmes (@KHOLMESlive) February 20, 2021
WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING YOU THE FILTHIEST DUNK EVER SEEN IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE…
D. U. N. K!
NOW BACK TO THE REGULAR PROGRAM IN PROGRESS.
— CK14 (@palazzo214) February 20, 2021
That nigga on the bench got up and walked off lmfaoooooo
— Zay (@zaynonojuice3) February 20, 2021
Yuta Watanabe’s reaction when getting posterized is giving me flashbacks to when J.R. Reid dunked on people back in the day pic.twitter.com/gdwBAfX6qw
— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) February 20, 2021
NBA Twitter sending Yuta Watanabe to the gulag after Anthony Edwards dunked on himpic.twitter.com/fXUum2VRSt
— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) February 20, 2021
The last time an American committed such a brutality on Japan, a World War came to an end.
— Amulya Shekhar (@tweet_amulya) February 20, 2021
Our only regret is that this wasn’t done in front of a crowd.