I finally found some time to break down the first ABA game:
Good effort and quick switch, he also contested jumpshot.
Bad boxout, allowing for offensive rebound.
Despite being out of position, Gilmore still contested shot nicely. It shows how giantic he truly was.
Another good P&R defense, look how quick he was on his feet and how low he went despite being true 7 footer. Then he made a nice rotation and got a hard contest, but a foul was called.
This time Gilmore didn't contest the shot, but bodied up the shooter nicely. Artis wasn't easy to move inside.
Gilmore didn't chase down jump shooters, but he made a nice contest here - reminds me of how Duncan usually defended decent shooters.
Poor communication, although I wouldn't give Gilmore a lot of blame here - it wasn't his role to switch and chase down shooters in such situations.
Gilmore had 3 fouls in the first half, so Pacers tried to turn him into foul trouble at the beginning of the second half. Let's just say that it's not easy to shoot around A-Train - here he blocks Elmore's shot like he was a child.
Elmore tries again and I don't know what he was thinking at this point, another easy block for Artis. Great, patient man defense.
Elmore tried harder and he failed harder...
Gilmore shows decent footspeed and draws a charge. I know it looks odd, but back then charges were called different and Gilmore did smart thing here (yes, that's a flop)
The foul was called before the shot, but Gilmore made another nice contest at the rim
Gilmore was very patient under the rim, he didn't go for fakes and stayed on his feet. He knew he had physical advantage and made another block.
Gilmore gave a bit too much space here and he didn't body his man, but he also contested the shot very well. I will call it as neutral play, he should have done better before the shot but the contest was good and it wasn't a good shot anyway.
This is an all-time great level of rim protection - Gilmore intimidated Pacers player who passed the ball to open center who tried to dunk on Artis, but Gilmore recovered quickly and blocked the dunk. What a wall Gilmore was under the rim!
Great post defense, Pacers bigs shouldn't have even tried to score on him.
First bad gamble I've recorded in this game. It's a poor block attempt that was completely unnecessary and he left his man wide open
Fantastic transition defense, the foul was called but I'd love to see better angle. To me it looks like a good play
This is the type of play that wasn't unusual for Artis - sometimes he was too late and got caught under the rim. These plays happened more often when he was old, in this game it was rare though. Great dunk by the way!Conclusions:
The goods:- he was a mountain inside, you can't shoot over him, unreal combination of length and shooting ability,
- excellent post defender, used his length nicely,
- very patient under the rim, rarely went up for pump fakes,
- good lateral quickness for his size and willingness to go low on his legs,
- very good defensive rebounder,
- hard to push around.
The bads:- didn't have the awareness of the best defenders ever, sometimes got too slow to spots,
- sometimes not physical enough as a post defender, relied more on length that strength,
- good feet for his size, but he was still a giant and could be caught in awkward positions,
- sometimes relied too much on his athleticism on defensive boards.
Overall, it was excellent defensive game from Artis and most of my criticism is relative to the best of the best like Hakeem, Russell or Walton. Let me know if you agree or disagree, I'l try to move on in near future to 1978 game.