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Inside The Spurs

Ranking Top 11 Dunks as Spurs Maul Grizzlies

Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle led the way as San Antonio dominated the paint with a dunk-filled highlight reel in Memphis.
Tom Petrini|
Mar 25, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) dunks as Memphis Grizzlies forward Tyler Burton (5) defends during the first quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Mar 25, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) dunks as Memphis Grizzlies forward Tyler Burton (5) defends during the first quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

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San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs dunked it all over the Grizzlies on Wednesday night, assembling enough highlights to last a week in the 123-98 win.

San Antonio scored 56 points in the paint and dunked it over a dozen times. Victor Wembanyama crammed three in a row at one point in the second half. Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie all put posters down, and Keldon Johnson and Carter Bryant got in on the fun late. Sean Elliott said on the broadcast that he had seen less bodies at a cemetery.

Here's the definitive, 100% objectively correct ranking of the top 11 Spurs dunks in this game.

11. Keldon in Transition

Harrison Barnes threw this one from the baseline and hit Keldon on the leak-out at the opposite free throw line. With the game already well in hand, Johnson opted for a simple one-handed punch.

10. Carter Bryant Flies High

Rookie Carter Bryant not only pokes the ball away but makes a nice little move to protect it and control it en route to a powerful launch and explosion at the rim. He reached all the way back and hammered it home with two hands to make Sean Elliott happy.

9. Vassell Curls and Crams

A few possessions earlier, Devin Vassell had seen all the dunks and leapt from an ambitious distance before finishing with a saucy but subtle finger roll, laughing with his teammates. On this trip he made a simple curl around a screen set by Wembanyama, allowing him to lose his defender, blow past the big man, and slice between the two defenders in the corners who rotated just a bit too late.

When Vassell got through the elevator doors he was already planting off of one foot and slamming down a tomahawk.

8. Castle Windmill

Classic defense to offense here as Victor Wembanyama starts a break with a steal. Keldon Johnson makes a heads-up play and tosses it ahead to Castle, the ball meeting him in stride before he went up with cruel intentions. The 2024 Dunk Contest finalist went all the way around on a windmill and made it look easy, but it wasn't his best dunk of the night.

7. An Opening Lob

This is the second game in a row where the Spurs have opened with a lob to Victor Wembanyama on the very first play. When he and Devin Vassell warm up together, they always close with a series of lobs. This one looked like a warm up, and set the tone for the rest of the game.

6. Area 51... But Inverted

In a not-so-stunning role reversal, 7-foot-5 Wemby poked a steal and pushed the pace in transition before lobbing it up to his point guard Castle, who ran the floor and filled the lane and finished with a fundamental two-handed jam.

5. Blocked But Not

Does this one technically count as a dunk? Julian Champagnie lobbed it up to Wemby, who reached up with that long right arm and got met at the apex by Cedric Coward, who defended the shot bravely and got a piece of it. The defense deadened the dunk attempt on the heel of the hoop, and it fell through the rim. Though it's not clear what we'd call this series of events, it is clear that it was cool.

4. Wemby Post-Up Eurostep And-1

Yeah, you read that right. Wembanyama initiated his post-up from beyond the 3-point arc and abused the smaller defender. When the help came it was too late and he was facing the basket, taking two enormous strides through the lane before finishing through a foul to the face.

3. Champagnie Pops Off

After a number of unrequited attempts to put someone on a poster earlier this season, Julian Champagnie's teammates love it when the guy gets up for a contact dunk. Champagnie is a shooter who could go a whole game without an attempt inside the arc, but he definitely has the skills and the pop to slam it when the opportunity presents itself.

As for this opportunity, he presented it to himself with a pump fake to lose one defender and a slick in-and-out dribble to fry a second. That left Taylor Hendricks as the back line defender, and Champagnie shot the cork directly into his face at point blank range before saying some words to him about it.

2. Wemby's Revenge

Memphis' GG Jackson is right handed, but he crossed Vassell over and hammered one down over a late contest by Wembanyama. Much like when Tristan Vukcevic dunked on Wemby earlier in the year, Sean Elliott said that the youngster would tell his grandkids about that one. And much like that Vukcevic dunk, Wembanyama waited only a few seconds before making sure that story included his vicious vengeance.

Wembanyama shook it off, came right back down the other end, and pump faked it when he caught it at the arc, open after Dylan Harper collapsed the defense with a drive. Wemby took one dribble, took two steps, and took Jackson's head clean off of his body. He jogged down the court with a big cheeky grin.

1. Castle's Knockout Punch

The best dunk of the night, and one of the best dunks of the year, belongs to Stephon Castle. He faked out his college teammate Cam Spencer and took two quick dribbles before launching off of two feet from just inside the dotted line. Taylor Hendricks tried to meet him at the mountaintop, but he got sent flying down it like Andy Samberg in Hot Rod.

Keldon Johnson said after the game that this was one of the craziest in-game dunks he's seen in a long time, and that Castle threw it down while he was still going up.

The real-time video has just a few frames between launch and impact. The slow motion captures a crazy display of force, followed by a seated stare down.

The Spurs were all over the Grizzlies from the jump, and Castle's thunderous throwdown felt like a knockout punch in the first round.

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Tom Petrini
TOM PETRINI

Tom Petrini has covered Spurs basketball for the last decade, first for Project Spurs and then for KENS 5 in San Antonio. After leaving the newsroom he co-founded the Silver and Black Coffee Hour, a weekly podcast where he catches up on Spurs news with friends Aaron Blackerby and Zach Montana. Tom lives in Austin with his partner Jess and their dogs Dottie and Guppy. His other interests include motorsports and making a nice marinara sauce.

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