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I decided to watch the 1991 Finals and track Jordan's plus-minus as well as his defense on Magic and in general. I graded his defense using letter grades as follows:

A - great
B - good
C - average
D - subpar
F - terrible

There were a few instances when time on the clock wasn't shown so I couldn't see exactly when MJ was substituted in or out but the error shouldn't be more than 5 seconds. It's also notable that minutes in a few games don't match the minutes on BRef although the series average is accurate at ~44 mpg.

Game 1

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 41:20: -3
Jordan OFF 6:40: +1

Defensive Grade: F (terrible)

MJ got absolutely cooked by Magic here having spent almost the whole game on him. He committed a woeful 5 shooting fouls on Magic. Just gambled for steals way too much and kept reaching for the ball. He also didn't do well on a few possessions when switched on to Worthy and Divac.

With MJ as primary defender:

Magic 12 points (1/2, 9/10)
Worthy 4 points (2/3, 0/0)
Divac 2 points (1/1, 0/0)

Game 2

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 37:05 : +25
Jordan OFF 10:55: -4

Defensive Grade: B (good)

Jordan spent half of the first quarter on Magic. He committed one non-shooting foul and drew one charge on the Magic man. Then Pippen spent much of the rest of the game on Magic. Jordan spend a few minutes on Magic in the 3rd quarter and committed a shooting foul leading to two free throws. MJ registered a nice block on Worthy, a steal on Teagle and drew a charge on Divac. All in all he was very active as a help defender compared to Game 1 even though he spent most of this game off of Magic.

With MJ as primary defender:

Magic 2 points (0/0, 2/2)

With Pippen as primary defender:

Magic 12 points (4/13, 4/4)

Magic had a far worse game here not just because Pippen was on him. Magic actually shook Pippen quite a few times but Pip didn't foul and the Bulls rotated better at the rim.

Game 3

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 50:52 : +7
Jordan OFF 2:08: +1

Defensive Grade: B (good)

Jordan and Pippen pretty much split their time on Magic. Jordan did a good job contesting Magic and was patient for the most part. He committed one shooting foul on Magic and another on Teagle. MJ forced Divac into a backcourt violated by pressing him and contested two more of his shots at the rim. He also registered a nice block on Teagle.

With MJ as primary defender:

Magic 6 points (2/5, 2/2)

With Pippen as primary defender:

Magic 16 points (5/10, 6/7)

Pippen just kept getting beat off the bounce by Magic and didn't do well here. MJ also gambled on Magic once but a good rotation at the rim prevented a collapse.

Game 4

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 45:36 : +14
Jordan OFF 2:24: +1

Defensive Grade: D (subpar)

The bad tendencies from Game 1 reared their ugly head again. MJ spent about half of the game on Magic and committed two shooting fouls and allowed a few blow-bys by gambling. He also had one nice block on Teagle but wasn't too active on defense in this one.

With MJ as primary defender:

Magic 9 points (3/3, 3/3)

With Pippen as primary defender:

Magic 13 points (3/10, 7/7)

Pippen also kept getting killed by Magic but Magic missed a few easy attempts at the rim and/or got bothered by Grant.

Game 5

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 48:00 : +7
Jordan OFF 0:00: 0

Defensive Grade: A (great)

MJ played the full 48 minutes here and was fantastic on D. Spend a big part of the game on Magic and just gave him a super hard time. Magic scored 5 points on 2 shots including a tough contested shot and a 3-pointer but MJ forced him into several turnovers. And he played smart without fouling and made it tough for Magic to receive the ball or get into his offense. MJ also got 5 steals, two on Magic and one each on Divac, AC Green and Teagle and got 2 blocks including one from behind on Green.

With MJ as primary defender:

Magic 5 points (2/2, 0/0)

With Pippen as primary defender:

Magic 11 points (2/10, 6/6)

The Bulls' team defense did a good job limiting Magic as in Game 4. Pippen was just solid but not spectacular.

Series Summary

Plus-Minus:
Jordan ON 222:53 : +50 (+12.6 Net Rtg)
Jordan OFF 22:07: -1 (-2.5 Net Rtg)

MJ had a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance on defense. He was terrible in Game 1 and bad in Game 4. Those two games he didn't move his feet well and just gambled way too much going for steals and committed dumb fouls and allowed Magic to blow by him. At least in Game 4 he was a bit more active as a help defender so it was a slightly better performance.

But then in Game 2, Game 3 and especially Game 5, MJ made his impact felt on the defensive end. His energy and activity led to a ton of deflections and he blew up a lot of plays directly. He also committed a grand total of 3 shooting fouls on Magic in those three games combined and was just more patient and calculated with his gambles.

I actually found Horace Grant's defense in the finals to be absolutely fantastic. He was tough on the defensive boards and offered strong resistance at the rim without fouling much. He was just very disciplined and a workhorse. If I had to rank the Bulls defensively in this series I'd say Grant >> Jordan > Pippen. Levingston off the bench was also very positive on defense and a good shotblocker.

The Bulls' team defense became suffocating after Game 1 and forced LA into a lot of tough looks. But despite popular belief it was the Bulls offense that won this series even more so than the defense. LA had the 5th best DRtg in the league at 105.0 but the Bulls registered a 115.7 ORtg in the Finals, a phenomenal +10.7 over opponent defense.

I am always very happy to see other people doing tracking job, especially for perimeter players (I have been focusing on centers for the last 2 years).

Would you be willing to do similar analysis on different series or different players?

Grading game 4 a D is pretty harsh. Are we grading MJ against MJ or against other guard defenders?

Game one was bad. The question is why was Jordan so bad? The PC board answer to this is MJ was a serial gambler who frequently left his teammates out to dry and got routinely cooked anytime he had to guard superstars like Magic who took advantage of Jordan's unsound defense. I'd like to submit an alternate theory: even the GOAT isn't immune to first Finals jitters.

Go back and look at how other ATGs performed in their first ever Finals game in the TV era.

Bron: 4/16 shooting
Barkley: 9/25 shooting
Shaq: 7 turnovers and got schooled by Hakeem
Kobe: only 14 points
Giannis: only 20 points (averaged 38 in the other five games)
Stockton: 7 turnovers
Ewing: 10/26 shooting (arguably this was more about Hakeem; Ewing sucked the whole series)
Reggie: famous 1/16
Kidd: 11/26
Wade: 11/25 and 5 turnovers
Bird: only 18 points and 5 turnovers (not TV era but still)

There are obviously exceptions (Duncan, Steph, KD, etc.) but this has happened way too much to ignore the trend. Someone will point out that MJ actually played well offensively (36/8/12 on good %). Fair. But he was uncharacteristically awful on the other end, flailing away and fouling in a manner we almost never saw from him, including in the rest of the series where he guarded Magic well.

In summary, the 'Magic torched Mike' narrative is overblown. It was one game, and it most likely happened due to nerves.

Djoker wrote:.

Appreciate the effort here though some film clippings would be helpful I think

do you have links/time-stamps for any edge-cases regarding what was being classified as good, great, or subpar?

Thanks for putting the effort into this!

Lucky days where you could just chill on D while guys played iso.

70sFan wrote:I am always very happy to see other people doing tracking job, especially for perimeter players (I have been focusing on centers for the last 2 years).

Would you be willing to do similar analysis on different series or different players?

PHILA did 1992, homecourtloss did 1993 and we have 1997 and 1998. My plan is to do the 1996 Finals next.

VanWest82 wrote:Grading game 4 a D is pretty harsh. Are we grading MJ against MJ or against other guard defenders?

Game one was bad. The question is why was Jordan so bad? The PC board answer to this is MJ was a serial gambler who frequently left his teammates out to dry and got routinely cooked anytime he had to guard superstars like Magic who took advantage of Jordan's unsound defense. I'd like to submit an alternate theory: even the GOAT isn't immune to first Finals jitters.

Go back and look at how other ATGs performed in their first ever Finals game in the TV era.

Bron: 4/16 shooting
Barkley: 9/25 shooting
Shaq: 7 turnovers and got schooled by Hakeem
Kobe: only 14 points
Giannis: only 20 points (averaged 38 in the other five games)
Stockton: 7 turnovers
Ewing: 10/26 shooting (arguably this was more about Hakeem; Ewing sucked the whole series)
Reggie: famous 1/16
Kidd: 11/26
Wade: 11/25 and 5 turnovers
Bird: only 18 points and 5 turnovers (not TV era but still)

There are obviously exceptions (Duncan, Steph, KD, etc.) but this has happened way too much to ignore the trend. Someone will point out that MJ actually played well offensively (36/8/12 on good %). Fair. But he was uncharacteristically awful on the other end, flailing away and fouling in a manner we almost never saw from him, including in the rest of the series where he guarded Magic well.

In summary, the 'Magic torched Mike' narrative is overblown. It was one game, and it most likely happened due to nerves.

I would say that "Magic torched both Mike and Pippen at times" is kind of the truth. Magic was pretty damn difficult to stop. Unbelievably good in the post with a deceptively quick first step. It's not really a knock on Jordan to not be able to stop Magic because it's really really hard to stop Magic. On many sequences (after Game 1) MJ actually played good D and Magic still got the better of him. The man was just so savvy. There was one sequence where Magic got the defensive rebound and he knew MJ was behind him without even turning his head and protected the ball. And he was so poised under pressure. MJ would full court press him sometimes two guys would double him and the man doesn't flinch. Even in Game 5 where MJ was fantastic on D, Magic still scored 5 points on 2 shots because he's Magic. He hit a 3pt shot and another difficult contested shot.

I don't think I was harsh with my ratings. I mean sure I judged Jordan relative to himself but that's kind of how it should be. MJ was worse than his usual self in Game 4 and a lot worse in Game 1.

1990/91 Magic was still a damn force, and then some, on offense. A new cast to some extent, playing at a much slower team pace and much higher HC frequency, you still see him adding a smidge more to his offensive arsenal with GOAT caliber creation abilities.

Djoker wrote:

70sFan wrote:I am always very happy to see other people doing tracking job, especially for perimeter players (I have been focusing on centers for the last 2 years).

Would you be willing to do similar analysis on different series or different players?

PHILA did 1992, homecourtloss did 1993 and we have 1997 and 1998. My plan is to do the 1996 Finals next.

Do we have threads for this as well?
Great job with this tracking!