Game Footage Link Thread

[70sFan]

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[SHAQ32]

1997: Penny vs Rookie Nash, 20 & 9 Kevin Johnson (uploaded 2018)

Spoiler:

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[Blackmill]

Rewatched 1987 finals G4. Most people remember Magic's game wining hook shot from this game, but what stood out to me was his defense.

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The 4th begins with the score 85-78 in favor of the Celtics. Magic had been resting for the last few minutes of the 3rd, but interestingly, Pat Riley put Magic back into the game for the last possession... to play defense? It seems so since the Lakers likely wouldn't get another shot. Anyways, let's look at the 4th quarter.

1:07:24 Magic does gamble here and leaves his man open. Possibly his only bad play of the quarter.

1:08:40 Magic switches onto Bird to deny him the ball, drains much of the shot clock doing this, then does a solid job at contesting after being bumped.

1:10:15 Magic helps on Birds cut and strips the ball, stopping a likely layup, but he bangs his knee and goes out of the game. He re-enters the game, limping noticeably at 1:12:33.

1:13:01 Magic races back in transition and stops what would have been a 2-on-1 fast break by deflecting the ball.

1:13:48 At first glance I thought Magic over helped on Dennis. But then I realized he was playing the pass to Parish, which I think was arguably the correct decision, especially since he's able to run Ainge off the 3-point line on the kick out. If Thompson is a little sharper with his rotation responsibility, this would have been a contested shot.

1:15:05 Magic is guarding two since the Lakers have doubled McHale. He does a good job closing out, forcing both Dennis and then Ainge to give up their shots, and the Celtics must take a less than ideal shot.

1:16:08 Magic covers McHale who was left open underneath the basket during Lakers rotations. He does an excellent job denying McHale the shot before rotating onto Parish and helping force a 24 second violation.

1:18:11 Magic helps on Bird and Cooper gets the block. If you watch the different angle replay at 1:19:00, you see Cooper got the block in part because Bird exposed the ball to Cooper in order to avoid Magic's block attempt.

1:18:30 Magic helps on Dennis's drive and forces a tough shot.

1:19:36 Magic does a good job fighting over Kite's screen to pressure Ainge's shot. Today the game plan would likely be to ice the screen, but I don't remember the Lakers doing that much if at all. Otherwise Magic made a high effort play fighting past Kite.

1:22:04 Magic shows good instincts by moving onto McHale, anticipating that Thompson will be the help, and he'll have help-the-helper responsibility. Bird actually misses the open pass to Dennis and instead goes for a pass to Ainge. If you watch closely, you'll see Magic's quick close out forces Bird to pull back his pass, and proceed with a handoff. Because of this, Ainge is forced into a long, not-perfectly-squared-up three rather than a cleaner spot up.

1:29:30 Magic does a good job denying the pass from Bird to Dennis, and then shading the play so that Bird can't pass to Parish who was otherwise available.

1:30:49 Magic is defending the Dennis-Parish PnR. Magic switches with Kareem and does a really good job at keeping Parish from getting deep position until Kareem can re-switch. Magic signals for Cooper to stick to Ainge, but Cooper doesn't notice initially, and both close out to Dennis. As a result the Lakers are scrambling and Bird gets an open corner three. Nonetheless good defense by Magic. If you watched just this quarter you'd think Magic was the better defender than Cooper.

1:34:08 The hook shot.

That's 12 meaningful (5-7 I'd consider very meaningful) defensive plays in the 4th quarter with some being the difference between a stop and a sure make. Magic was legitimately quick, had size and strength, plus a better motor than people give him credit for, and possessed generally great instincts. The Lakers defense this season was rotation heavy and very much a team effort, but Magic was probably the most important Laker defender in the final minutes of this game. The last game I watched of Magic was from the 1991 finals, when he looked a lot like a liability. This was a nice reminder that during his peak he could be a very positive defender.

[70sFan]

Rewatched 1987 finals G4. Most people remember Magic's game wining hook shot from this game, but what stood out to me was his defense.

Watch on YouTube

The 4th begins with the score 85-78 in favor of the Celtics. Magic had been resting for the last few minutes of the 3rd, but interestingly, Pat Riley put Magic back into the game for the last possession... to play defense? It seems so since the Lakers likely wouldn't get another shot. Anyways, let's look at the 4th quarter.

1:07:24 Magic does gamble here and leaves his man open. Possibly his only bad play of the quarter.

1:08:40 Magic switches onto Bird to deny him the ball, drains much of the shot clock doing this, then does a solid job at contesting after being bumped.

1:10:15 Magic helps on Birds cut and strips the ball, stopping a likely layup, but he bangs his knee and goes out of the game. He re-enters the game, limping noticeably at 1:12:33.

1:13:01 Magic races back in transition and stops what would have been a 2-on-1 fast break by deflecting the ball.

1:13:48 At first glance I thought Magic over helped on Dennis. But then I realized he was playing the pass to Parish, which I think was arguably the correct decision, especially since he's able to run Ainge off the 3-point line on the kick out. If Thompson is a little sharper with his rotation responsibility, this would have been a contested shot.

1:15:05 Magic is guarding two since the Lakers have doubled McHale. He does a good job closing out, forcing both Dennis and then Ainge to give up their shots, and the Celtics must take a less than ideal shot.

1:16:08 Magic covers McHale who was left open underneath the basket during Lakers rotations. He does an excellent job denying McHale the shot before rotating onto Parish and helping force a 24 second violation.

1:18:11 Magic helps on Bird and Cooper gets the block. If you watch the different angle replay at 1:19:00, you see Cooper got the block in part because Bird exposed the ball to Cooper in order to avoid Magic's block attempt.

1:18:30 Magic helps on Dennis's drive and forces a tough shot.

1:19:36 Magic does a good job fighting over Kite's screen to pressure Ainge's shot. Today the game plan would likely be to ice the screen, but I don't remember the Lakers doing that much if at all. Otherwise Magic made a high effort play fighting past Kite.

1:22:04 Magic shows good instincts by moving onto McHale, anticipating that Thompson will be the help, and he'll have help-the-helper responsibility. Bird actually misses the open pass to Dennis and instead goes for a pass to Ainge. If you watch closely, you'll see Magic's quick close out forces Bird to pull back his pass, and proceed with a handoff. Because of this, Ainge is forced into a long, not-perfectly-squared-up three rather than a cleaner spot up.

1:29:30 Magic does a good job denying the pass from Bird to Dennis, and then shading the play so that Bird can't pass to Parish who was otherwise available.

1:30:49 Magic is defending the Dennis-Parish PnR. Magic switches with Kareem and does a really good job at keeping Parish from getting deep position until Kareem can re-switch. Magic signals for Cooper to stick to Ainge, but Cooper doesn't notice initially, and both close out to Dennis. As a result the Lakers are scrambling and Bird gets an open corner three. Nonetheless good defense by Magic. If you watched just this quarter you'd think Magic was the better defender than Cooper.

1:34:08 The hook shot.

That's 12 meaningful (5-7 I'd consider very meaningful) defensive plays in the 4th quarter with some being the difference between a stop and a sure make. Magic was legitimately quick, had size and strength, plus a better motor than people give him credit for, and possessed generally great instincts. The Lakers defense this season was rotation heavy and very much a team effort, but Magic was probably the most important Laker defender in the final minutes of this game. The last game I watched of Magic was from the 1991 finals, when he looked a lot like a liability. This was a nice reminder that during his peak he could be a very positive defender.

I always felt that Magic was a plus defender until he got older (by 1990 he was really bad). When he was focused, he could be really good, but his effort was always inconsistent. I still don't like when people call him bad defender, he was way better than that.

[Clyde Frazier]

FYI tonight on NBA TV at 10 pm eastern they're showing Jordan's career high 69 pts against the cavs in 89-90. The schedule is worth checking out. Pretty random games, but a decent assortment over the next few days:

https://www.nba.com/nbatv/schedule

[70sFan]

FYI tonight on NBA TV at 10 pm eastern they're showing Jordan's career high 69 pts against the cavs in 89-90. The schedule is worth checking out. Pretty random games, but a decent assortment over the next few days:

https://www.nba.com/nbatv/schedule

Do they show anything new?

[Clyde Frazier]

FYI tonight on NBA TV at 10 pm eastern they're showing Jordan's career high 69 pts against the cavs in 89-90. The schedule is worth checking out. Pretty random games, but a decent assortment over the next few days:

https://www.nba.com/nbatv/schedule

Do they show anything new?

New as in games that haven't been on NBA TV before? Probably, but couldn't tell you for sure.

[HeadtopChunes]

Anybody got a link to Game 6 of the 2012 ECF?

Can’t seem to find it anywhere

edit: i found it

[Blackmill]

Anybody got a link to Game 6 of the 2012 ECF?

Can’t seem to find it anywhere

edit: i found it

Could you link it, please? I think I've found it as a download but not on youtube.

[HeadtopChunes]

Anybody got a link to Game 6 of the 2012 ECF?

Can’t seem to find it anywhere

edit: i found it

Could you link it, please? I think I've found it as a download but not on youtube.

sent a PM

[Clyde Frazier]

I got into the "watch NBA tapes from my childhood on youtube" phase of NBA quarantine yesterday:

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[They're both still entertaining!]

[JordansBulls]

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[Clyde Frazier]

Read on Twitter

This is fun

[Morb]

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[O_6]

Does anybody have a video of the full play that this Russell on West block is from? It's an iconic Russell clip but I feel like 99% of the time I see it, it's only the very end of the play which is still impressive. But I do remember seeing the entire play one time and I was amazed at Russell's court coverage and how fast he came from the other side of the court. Am I misremembering there being available footage of this complete sequence or does anyone know where I can find it?

[70sFan]

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Bob McAdoo Braves Highligths, enjoy!

[70sFan]

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I just created a video about the best Wilt Chamberlain scoring performances that are captured on film. Enjoy!

[LA Bird]

NBA released this for Yao's 40th birthday. Some nice plays in here I haven't seen before

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[70sFan]

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Enjoy by far the best Tom Gola video with all of his plays available included!

[70sFan]

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I've been rewatching 1990 Lakers games for some time now and I just finished game 2 against the Rockets. I decided to share some of my notes:

Lakers offense

Lakers played quite unique offense for that era. They often played a small-ball with Worthy at 4 and even in their starting lineup (Magic/Scott/Worthy/Green/Thompson), they didn't use bigs to play inside. It might be one of the first teams I've ever seen that relied a lot on one player who did the most work (Magic), but Magic didn't play like modern playmakers - he hunted for missmatches and easy opportunities for his teammates. In this particular series, Houston really struggled to contain Worthy and Magic did the best job possible to give him the ball.

Lakers also used spacing more than most teams at that time (which was quite the norm since the early 1980s) - Green was used as a stretch four (though he usually shot long midrange shots), they also had 3 solid shooting guards - Scott, Cooper and Drew. That gave Magic and Worthy a lot of space (relative to the era they played in) to work in the post, where they were deadly.

It's also quite important thing - this wasn't Showtime Lakers anymore. Lakers were a slow, methodological team that worked mostly on the halfcourt.

Lakers defense

Lakers switched a lot, which is also quite modern approach. They had a lot of long athletes (Worthy, Wooldridge, Green, Cooper) who weren't shut down defenders but could guard most positions reasonably well. They didn't have any great shotblocker (Divac was just a rookie and Thompson was undersized), so they relied on creating turnovers and pressing guards. A lot of times Lakers played a kind of traping zone, which wasn't called most of the times.

Magic Johnson offense

What can I say? He's the best playmaker ever in his best playmaking season. His scoring and shooting was never better. He developed a post game that was literally unguardable one on one, that's why Houston tried a lot of double teams on him (which didn't work for most of the time as you could imagine). As I said before, Magic was a missmatch hunter and he did that better than anyone in NBA history. Mainly, because he was the walking missmatch himself. He wasn't nearly as fast as he used to be and he didn't run in transition nearly as much, but his handles were GOAT-level at his size and he was very crafty inside with variety of floaters, running hooks and finger rolls. He was also extremely good at drawing fouls.

About his passing - there is not a single pass he couldn't make. He's among the most creative passers ever, but what's important is that he also had the arm strength to throw bullet pass as well as anyone. He's basically more creative James in that aspect.

Magic Johnson defense

This is mixed bag at this point of Johnson's career. We all know that he always struggled against quick players. He also didn't provide much rim protection. I want you to watch 4th quarter though to see that motivated Magic was still capable of being a difference maker. The highlight of his defensive play was a block on Maxwell at 1:31:20. He was also very smart with rotations and he communitacted very well with his teammates.

I also think that illegal defense hurt him on that end. Magic was smart zone defender and he usually read opponent's offense very well. He'd be more impactful without rules that limited how he could help his teammates.



I also want to say that Hakeem was unbelieveable defensively in both games, especially here. He was impossible to score on and his athleticism allowed him to be very agressive. I've never seen a bigman with such a quick hands, he could deflect the ball even against point guards.