I believe this is Game 2 of the 1985 series between the Bulls and the Bucks. There’s some skips in the footage, so it doesn’t actually show every possession, but it seems like it shows the vast majority of it.
Jordan had 30 points on 68% TS% in this game, but I was most struck by Jordan’s playmaking here. He really is creating a lot in this game, primarily through driving to the hoop, pulling defenders towards him, and dishing to an open man. He eventually played with systems and gameplans that called for less of this from him, but he was a great creator from the beginning.
And I’ll note that this assessment of Jordan’s great playmaking in this series is consistent with Ben Taylor’s conclusions, which he got from watching videos containing lengthy highlights of each game. See below (and in particular the bolded):
Spoiler:
Bucks-Bulls series
There are 4 highlights of the games, each containing a large number of possessions but unfortunately highlights. Here are my impressions:
MJ had 23-4-10 in G1. Squid guarded Jordan a LOT. MJ's doing well with PnR action. On one play, MJ was caught in air awkwardly in semi-transition and turned it over. I don't see this type of play during the rest of MJ's career. Jordan had 21 in the first half in G2 but struggled in the second half. Statline was something around 27-4-11. MJ did attack Squid and get by him or score in the lane in 1 v 1 situations. Jordan was just too quick and explosive.
Squid had some nice finishes in transition. Threw a nice alley-oop pass. Did much better on MJ than any of his teammates. He just had a nice feel for every game in the series, or at least that's how it came across in the cuts.
G3 video claims MJ went 35-8-7 on 13-20 shooting, 4 steals and 3 blocks. Wow (if correct). Squid made a HUGE spinning J late in this game to put Bucks up 1. MJ hit the big one to go up 108-107 Bulls with 22 left. 17 in 2nd half for MJ here. Jordan's numbers through first 3 games: 29.3 - 5.3 - 9.7 45.2% FG.
At this point, I see a hyper-athletic Jordan with a solid midrange game. There are flashes of brilliance, such as the spin move where he left Moncrief whiffing at air in G4, or the ridiculous behind the back dribble to split Moncrief and Lister's double team clear away. Dude was drawing fouls at halfcout in these games. He attacks the basic like a maniac in this series, nearly fouling Squid out of game 3 and attempting 20 FT's in game 4. He took 58 FTs in 4 games in this series, well up from his regular season rate. He's also creating a lot of offense for a weak offensive cast, driving and dishing or kicking. The high assists are no fluke, and similarly his RS ast% is easily his highest until 1988.
The stats show a superstar (Jordan led the NBA in points in 1985), as does the Bulls improvement (a similar team goes +4 in SRS and over +6 in ORtg) and concurrently I see someone affecting the game in big ways on tape.
Of course, this sort of thing is very consistent with Jordan having put up a +10.4 on-court rORTG in that series (see Djoker’s Offensive GOAT thread regarding Jordan). And this was against a 6.69 SRS team with the #2 ranked defense that was putting the recent two-time DPOY on Jordan. A really high degree of difficulty here, and Jordan produced great offense (and young Jordan would do something similar the next two playoffs against other great teams). Jordan was already an absolutely elite offensive engine even as a rookie.
OhayoKD wrote:Lebron contributes more to all the phases of play than Messi does. And he is of course a defensive anchor unlike messi.
I remember Uncut Hoops made a great video on this series a while back. He was also super impressed with Jordan's playmaking. Drive and kick for jumpers over and over. Imagine better spacing where they can't help on the drives plus those kick-outs and end in 3's instead of long 2's.
