I enjoy Zach Lowe's basketball analyses on Grantland. He's delves a bit more into X's and O's than some of the pure statistical analysts, and I find that mix more illuminating considering the complex interaction effects in basketball.

His latest article is one of the best explanations yet as to why the Lakers are doing so terribly this year. Since I hate Kobe Bryant, I take perverse pleasure in reading chronicles of their shortcomings, especially when Kobe's poor defense is one of the Lakers problems.

But what's more interesting to me, in a way, is all those short YouTube video clips Lowe uses to break down plays from games. Who is uploading these videos of single plays? Is it Lowe himself, or someone else? If it isn't Lowe, how does he find the right clips of the right plays to use given the scarce metadata? Is it legal to upload these short clips from NBA games?

In the NFL you have to pay to watch NFL Game Rewind, but Lowe relies exclusively on these short YouTube clips which don't appear to have an NBA-sanctioned equivalent.

However these clips are produced, and however Lowe finds them, they're turning into the best option for play by play analysis of the NBA.