screengrab via SBN

After a brief hiatus to deal with objective weekly winners like DeAndre Jordan’s dunk on Brandon Knight, LeBron’s ridiculous circus posterization of Jason Terry and Doug Anderson’s destruction of the space-time continuum, the Wednesday Dunk Battle is back!

If this is your first Dunk Battle, here are the rules: You have to watch the following dunks and vote on which one is the best, because science doesn’t do itself. There’s a handy poll at the bottom, so take your time and go through each clip frame by frame, vote, then drop down into the comments section to let us know who you voted for.

This week’s dunks:

1. Russell Westbrook elevates and dunks on the Utah Jazz
2. LeBron James alley-oops the ball to himself off the backboard and dunks, because LeBron James
3. Blake Griffin goes for a finger roll, calls an audible, dunks his finger roll
4. Terrence Ross’ 360 180 degree jam

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Last week’s Wednesday Dunk Battle was one of the most hotly contested ever, pitting LeBron James and Blake Griffin (the two most prolific Wednesday Dunk Battlers of the season) against a sea otter and a guy who dunked through fire. The sea otter murdered them. But still, the idea is that the Wednesday Dunk Battle is HEATING UP, and this week we see who dares follow in Eddie the Sea Otter’s footsteps. Yes, LeBron James is in this one, too. Yes, I tried to see how many times I could write “Wednesday Dunk Battle” in one paragraph.

This week’s dunks:

1. Past-his-prime Kobe Bryant goes FULL PRIME on Josh Smith.
2. LeBron James runs a slant route en route to his one millionth alley-oop from Dwyane Wade.
3. Baylor’s Brittney Griner dunks on what might as well be everyone from Kansas State.
4. Louisville’s Chane Behanan uses the anger he’s felt trying to spell “Shane Bohannon” in his lifetime and brutally dunks over DePaul guard Worrel Clahar, who has NO IDEA what to spell.

You make the call. Please remember that your science is appreciated, and that voting in the poll below officially makes you a scientist. OF BASKETBALL DUNKS.

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This week, the Wednesday Dunk Battle goes high concept — what, scientifically speaking, constitutes the “best slam dunk?” Does it lessen the dunk’s greatness if it’s performed in practice? What if it involves a pillar of fire and a trampoline? What if you aren’t a human being and can dunk? How do they relate to one another?

Your job, as a loyal With Leather reader, is to view the following dunks and help decide which slam dunk slammed most dunkingly. It’s important that you participate and vote in the poll at the bottom, for without you, we may never know the perfect dunk equation.

This week’s dunks:

1. The Los Angeles Clippers block/pass/dunk machine leads to a massive left-handed effort from Blake Griffin.
2. LeBron James continues to nerf the entire 2013 Slam Dunk Contest by going between his legs in practice.
3. Kenneth Faried goes up Dwight Howard’s helpless back to catch an alley-oop.
4. A ridiculous man’s fire dunk, as seen yesterday on With Leather
5. Eddie the sea otter throws it down, as seen in Danger’s post from last Wednesday

Please view, and vote in the poll.

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The Wednesday Dunk Battle is your most important weekly stop as a With Leather reader. Your viewing of a collection of dunks and decision regarding which dunk was the most Slam Dunk is important not only for editor-to-patron relations, but for SCIENCE, because deciding which dunks are best is science’s primary goal.

Last week’s winner (in a landslide) was Kobe Bryant. This week’s showdown features Dwyane Wade, Blake Griffin, a jumble of consonants and what may or may not be Teenage Gronkowski back for dunking glory.

This week’s contestants:

1. It says “DeMar DeRozan dunks on Timofey Mozgov” but I refuse to believe that those are peoples’ names
2. Back-to-back dunks from DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin
3. Dwyane Wade’s “showtime reverse”
4. Trevor Wages from the COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES (~!) shatters the backboard

Please consult the dunk clips and make your decision below.

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You know the drill. Every Wednesday we collect four notable slam dunks from the last seven days of basketball and pit them against one another in the WEDNESDAY DUNK BATTLE. You watch the dunks, then scroll to the bottom and vote for your favorite. The winner is named the scientifically, democratically-decided Dunk Of The Week, which I assume wins them fame and prizes.

This week’s dunks:

1. Nick Young’s 360 dunk for the mild enjoyment of Sixers fans.
2. Pacific University’s awesomely-named Dustin Bowser catches a ball off the glass and sends his defender tumbling into a wall.
3. Kobe Bryant dunks on the Nets, but Kris Humphries is there, so we’ll just say he specifically dunked on Kris Humphries, because f**k Kris Humphries
4. Nate Robinson’s fast-forward dunk on the Bucks.

Please consult the following clips and make your decision below.

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You know how this works.

In order to further Slam Dunk Analysis sciences, we’re asking you, the With Leather community, to compare four of the week’s best dunks and tell us which was the most … uh, slam dunk. We’re still working on the phrasing. Anyway, watch these four dunk clips and please, take a moment to vote in the handy poll included at the bottom.

Your dunks for this week:

1. James Harden’s tomahawk slam on the Utah Jazz.
2. Carlos Boozer dunks, gets an amazing call, gets an even better reaction from Taj Gibson.
3. Jeff Green dunks on Chris Bosh, specifically.
4. Dwight Howard sucks at basketball.

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