Lakers @ Bulls, 1993 (Jordan, rare Chick verz)

1-05-1993. A long video, but mind you, games from the era where they didn't have the permanent score/timestamp on the screen are hard to cap. You have to include a lot of context to keep it coherent, so anyone who watches all of this in one shot, you have my love and respect! I LOVE YOU, MAN! This Laker team was a mix of very old and young. As such, they had trouble getting up for every game. They won 5 of 7 games vs the Blazers/Bulls, who were the prior year's Finals participants and blew one of those losses in last secs to Porty to boot. Otoh, they lost to the 11-71 Mavs, poor Kings, TWolves, etc. Couldn't get it up every night and were slooow and plodding at best (Buddha Edwards their backup C, for ex).

The one virtue they had as a group with highly experienced players is that they were very careful with the ball, which helped them to stay close to a team like the Bulls. They barely scraped into the playoffs with 39 wins and came within an eyelash of eliminating the 93 Suns, who went to the Finals. They got cheated at the end of Gm 5 for extra measure. They had that game wrapped before the refs gifted PHX a lifesaving incorrect call. I remember being miserable for a few days after that loss. Don't get me started. Big Joe McDonnell (The Big Nasty), LA drivetime sports radio host and Jerry West's go-to for spreading info used to fume about that game as well. Remember listening to him go off about it a decade later. RIP Joe.