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On Saturday, the Lakers went into Boston to play their longtime rivals, the Celtics. In the process, they wanted to put an end to their two-game losing streak and get revenge for the drubbing they took at the TD Garden last season. Although sleep-walking for the majority of the second and third quarters and doing their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the end, the Lakers came away with a one-point victory after the Celtics’ Kemba Walker and Daniel Theis missed chances on a wild final possession in transition.
It wasn’t a game to remember, but when it comes to the Celtics, you take the win however you can get it. And even still, every Lakers game right now is filled with an assortment of superb plays, and this victory was no exception. In the following video — using my background in sports science, movement, and coaching — I dissected three elite plays and skills the Lakers displayed through the lens of biomechanics, movement patterns, basketball technique and the “mental side” of the game.
Let’s take a closer look at each of those plays:
My goal is to produce these “Skills Science” segments after the majority of games this season (and ideally after each game — hey, a man can dream, can’t he?) and hopefully they provide a little more detail about the technical aspects of movement, skills and the game of basketball itself.
In the meantime, what were some elite skills, plays and details that stood out to you? Let me know in the comments below this post.
Dr. Rajpal Brar has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA. He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for 1.5 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), and analyzes the Lakers from a medical perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and Laker Film Room. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.