Magic Johnson's Top 5 Best NBA Games

Magic Johnson's Top 5 Best Matches in the NBA

The meetings in which the legend of the Los Angeles Lakers was above everyone

Irvin Mejdik Johnson is one of the most successful players in the National Basketball Association. The 206-centimeter guard spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers team, with whom he won 5 titles in the 1980s, which are also considered the most successful in the history of the Lakers. Johnson played in the NBA from 1979 to 1991 and again in 1996. He was voted MVP in the regular season 3 times and as many in the NBA Finals, including his debut season in the league. However, in the following lines, we will recall Magic Johnson's five best matches.

In fifth position, we put a matchup that Lakers fans will always remember. This is a regular season matchup with the Boston Celtics played on December 11th, 1987. The rivalry between the two teams in the 1980s is legendary, and in that year the team from Los Angeles won the title, beating Boston for the second time. At TD Garden in Massachusetts, the Celtics led 114-112 with just 3 seconds left before the buzzer. Then Johnson scored from the three-point line and brought success to his team 115 to 114. A game in which Johnson scored 18 points, made 17 assists and accounted for 8 rebounds, as well as two steals. While he wasn't the top scorer, ceding that honor to Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Johnson scored the all-important basket for his team to win.

In the next position, we can't help but put the match in which Johnson scored the most points in his career. Yes, Magic is not among the best scorers in the league, he does not score enough to put him among the best in this metric, but he has a number of games with more than 40 points. He scored the most in a meeting with the Sacramento Kings just before Christmas. On December 23, 1986, he scored 46 points, becoming the most productive for the 127:117 success of the "lakes". To this, Magic adds 10 rebounds, "only" 9 assists and 1 steal in all 48 minutes in which he does not get a moment of rest.

And since we've already talked about the lack of impressive scoring skills, it's only right that we pay special attention to Magic's passing. More than once in his career he managed to reach 24 assists. Yes, 24, which is a minimum of 48 points realized thanks to his excellent passes. In the top 3, we will put one of those clashes in which, however, he fails to help his team to success. It is about a meeting with the Phoenix Suns from the semifinals of the Western Conference, in which, in addition to 24 assists, Magic has 24 points, 6 rebounds, 2 umbrellas and manages to steal 2 balls, but this does not stop the "Suns" from achieving a key victory , and subsequently to stop the Lakers in the series.

We can't help but pay attention to his fantastic performance in the NBA Finals. At number two is his achievement in the second meeting of the series with Boston in 1987. Magic then also grabbed the award for the most valuable player in the finals, and from the first meeting he showed that without his passes, the Lakers would hardly win. At The Forum, he was brilliant and stood out the most on June 4th when he scored 22 points, just two short of Lakers' game-high Byron Scott, dished out a phenomenal 20 assists that record for him in a Finals game, managed to control 5 rebounds and 3 steals. The Lakers won 141 to 122 to take a 2-0 lead in the series, which ended with a 4-2 win for the Los Angeles team.

The undisputed number one, however, is a matchup in which Magic plays as… center. Yes, this is the matchup that showed Johnson can be put in any role and deliver. And to make it even more remarkable, this is a game in his debut NBA season. This is a game in the final series against the Philadelphia 76ers. And notably, it's Game 6 in which the Lakers managed to clinch the title despite Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being injured. It is in his role that the young Irvin should be placed, who is already close to the award for the most valuable player in the final series already in his first year in the league. But he managed to cope fantastically in the role of a center, scoring as many as 42 points, to which he added 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 1 umbrella in 47 minutes on the floor. The Lakers won 123 to 107 and, quite deservedly, Magic Johnson put on the first of his five rings.

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