Every shot attempt from Larry Bird with Magic Johnson as the primary defender in the 1987 NBA Finals

I tried not to include any screens or transistion stuff where one or the other was at a clear disadvantage due to other players and this is all hand tracked so probably not going to be perfect. I know they did not really guard each other that much. I only tracked 2 shot attempts from Magic with Bird as the primary defender

Magic Johnson is the Worst defender of any player consistently viewed as a Top 10-15 Player All-Time.

If he had shot like that in 1985, we might’ve won that series

Fried his ass hard

Individual defense didnt matter in that era imo

Best player ever other than Jordan. Magic this year was better and the skyhook in Game 4 pretty much ended the series. The series was never close and the Celtics had just gone through both the Bucks/Detroit in long series. They barley got to the finals.

#3 Magic was forced to switch out late because Bird's defender got caught in a screen. Seriously get it right