I once tried a murder case four times. Three hung juries. I never tried the same case twice. I switched up the order of things, added a minor witness here, dropped a minor witness there, but the result three times was a hung jury. I decided for round four I had to go bold. I dropped the witness who had been the focal point of the first three trials and gave a vanilla opening statement to the jury that did not tip my hand to opposing counsel, ever since a good friend. He gave the same opening, mentioning the witness by name for a fourth time. Well into the trial, maybe at first judgment of acquittal, my friend sputtered and stammered to the judge finally outing with, "Your Honor, Mr. Harris is a very strategic litigator." The jury convicted on all counts.

As in criminal jury trials the head coach of a basketball team has a finite universe of personnel upon which to draw. In neither vocation can the head man call up central casting and insert some new witness into the lineup from parts unknown. In both, all of the players are known to the other side.

All of which makes what "Lakers" head coach Frank Vogel did not once but twice in The NBA Finals so boldly strategic. Assigning Anthony Davis to guard Jimmy Butler in Game 4 contained Jimmy and won the game for the "Lakers." But Vogel's insertion of small man Alex Caruso into the lineup in Game 6 for big man Dwight Howard completely changed the way the game had been played the previous five times: set offenses, set defenses, a deliberate place--dance with who brung ya. With Caruso, Vogel turned the dance into a relay race, a scripted classical score into jazz improvisation. Erik Spoelstra was overwhelmed and could never adjust. 

Perhaps Spoelstra did not have the personnel to match up-tempo. Perhaps. Jimmy Butler prefers a half-court game where he can penetrate the lane, get a bucket, or, as frequently, draw a foul. Miami had only a sorrowfully slowed Goran Dragic to spell Jimmy at point guard. Bam Adebayo is very young, very athletic, very quick, very active, a good passer and a big with a creditable mid-range shot. But to be peak impactful Bam has to have time to get from under one basket to under another. What Vogel did with his small, quick lineup was run right by Bam and the rest of the "Heat" defenders before they could get set.

Spoelstra had Myers Leonard, Kendrick Nunn, Tyler Herro, and Duncan Robinson to call upon. You want to play pinball, we can play pinball. However, this was not your grandfather's "Laker" D last night: slow to rotate, too slow to stop Jimmy's blow-by drives, a defense under constant stress. Last night the "Lakers" rotated on defense at pace with their offense. They were on Miami's players like glue--the defense stressing the offense.

The "Lakers" stepped up their intensity and the "Heat" didn't have that extra overdrive gear to counter. Nothing Erik Spoelstra could do about that. But Frank Vogel had fundamentally changed the game also and it was the second game in six total that Spoelstra could not answer. Perhaps because he could not with the personnel he had. Perhaps because Vogel simply out-coached Spoelstra in this Finals.