“What they know how to do is in those key moments of games, how to take control. A lot of times that ends up being end of quarter, end of half or the swing moments in the second half. The real pivotal skirmishes, as Pat [Riley] likes to call them, they tend to know how to win those. That’s usually what championship-caliber teams that are coming off of a title run, they might not play the most consistent basketball all the way through the regular season. But in those pockets, they know how to win those moments and ultimately that just helps them win games, even if they’re not playing at the super highest level that they can get to.”
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That's an excellent deep dive. It's not all season, it's not even all game, it's those "pivotal skirmishes" that are the difference between "championship-caliber teams" and the really-good-but-not-quite. I noticed also that Spoelstra doesn't mention talent. Others will look at that game (and games like it) and conclude, as I did, "Denver is simply the more talented team. They have Nikola Jokic, we have Nikola Jovic." Bot Spoelstra doesn't mention a talent disparity. That's because he thinks "we have enough" talent so that having the basketball intelligence to recognize that those moments are at hand; having players with the WILL to seize them; and having the the tools of strategy and tactic that comes with coaching acumen, can overcome any paper talent disparity that exists.
We can think, we shouldn't because that can make us sound stupid, of analogies in war-making. The South did not have "enough"--not enough manpower, not enough industrial might--to win the Civil War, but that war still lasted four long "quarters" and was there to be seized by either "team" until those three "moments" in July, 1863. "Coach" Robert E. Lee made a fatal mistake in getting away from the South's "defensive" identity and going on offense and starting to shoot from beyond the arc. Even then the war lasted almost two more years.
I think, I really do think, that "General" Spoelstra and "headquarters" put too much emphasis on basketball IQ and will and brilliant coaching and not enough on the that hardest of stubborn facts, talent. If they just look at history, their history, the last time they won a title was in 2013 when they had the Big Three players. And if they looked at their history since: an average 45 wins over nine years, 45 wins this year (extrapolated from today's .547 decimal win percentage over 82 games), a standard deviation of 5-- 40-50 wins is, statistically, what this org is going to produce in the regular season every season. Not the whole story, certainly. Doesn't explain two Finals appearances; is inconsistent with having the best record in the East one of those nine years and that year not making the Finals; Is consistent with this: No NBA title since 2013, not even close. The "Lakers" beat us four games to two, the "Nuggets" beat us four games to one. Not "enough" talent.