Listen to the analysis during and after Game 7 of the NBA Finals and you will hear a lot of insightful commentary about match-ups, switches, spacing and the like. No doubt these are all important.
They don't determine games, though.
The Golden State Warriors lost Game 7, the finals series, the championship and their magical season because in the finals series they missed their shots.
It's that simple.
All the strategy you can fit on the court is weak sauce if the opponent puts the ball in the basket. Certainly a good defensive strategy can make it more difficult. But the Warriors' genius was that they were immune to those kinds of efforts.
If you watched the series, you saw each team take ridiculous, ill-advised shots. And score. Then you saw players slip past their defenders for an easy layup. And clank it. There was no deduction for poor judgment on the first shot and no consolation for great floor play on the second.
In the last two games on their home court, they missed 63% of their attempts in Game 5 and 61% in Game 7. They were outshot by a wide margin in all four losses.
The MVP of the league, the rabbit-pulling hoops master, the player who thrilled us all season by tossing in bombs despite two hands in his face, missed 45 of 73 shots in the four Warriors losses.
What more do you need to know?
Imagine how completely different the narrative would be had Steph Curry hit just two more shots in Game 7 and reclaimed the crown.
No one sounds smart on TV asserting that the difference in the game is that one team is making baskets and the other isn't. But ultimately, that's all it is.
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