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Will have to respectfully disagree with you guys a bit on that.
For me, It's a basketball thing. You can't measure a team's "G-ness" or "Mental Fortitude." That's a romanticized way of looking at sports, not just basketball. It really doesn't play out like that, In my opinion at least. Those terms are great for TV, great for people to come to grips with whats happening, but its a lazy and often times innaccurate assesment of what's going on. We as fans aren't psychologist, and you can't tell what mental state a player is in just from watching him for a period of time on TV for the most part. For instance the Clips won game 4 in SAS, Won game 6 in SAS, then won Game 7. Then without CP they almost take the first two games in Houston. How can they have mental fortitude then, but all of a sudden not have it in games 5-7? I just don't know how to assess "mental Fortitude."
It's flat out basketball man. You win and lose with your role players. When Matt Barnes is giving you 20 points in a game 7, and Austin Rivers is going off for 16 on the road in SAS, things like that you win. When they don't, you lose. The difference in the play of the role / support players from games 1-4 to games 5-7 is largely why we lost that series. Blake and CP do have to be better in the 4th quarter, but they have to be better at basketball things, not something mythologized like "Mental Fortitude." Staying discipline and running your sets to get good shots in the 4th, Doc Rivers rotations in the 4th, whether or not you play Pierce and Crawford together in the 4th, these are things that they need to get better at and to me that isn't "G-ness" it's simply basketball.
i think the game of basketball is naturally gonna give you ups and downs. i think you are half right in what you say. but the bottom line is, when crunch time comes, there has to be some type of DOG inside of players that says give me the ball and let me take us home. this is the difference between michael jordan and practically everyone else. not saying that nobody else had it...but none could ever reach that level of confidence, moxxy and preparation that got him to a point where when it came to winning time, there was no way that he was gonna let his team lose. if he caught john stockton on the post he demanded the ball and scored point blank. when blake catches the ball down low and he has klay thompson guarding him, there has to be something inside him that says "barbeque chicken" like shaq would say. that is the "G" in him that i am speaking of.
i dont think that we are totally void of this gene/quality...i think CP3 has it...but he has it in a 6 foot 190lb body opposed to a 6'10" 260lb body.
when i see andre drummond play...he has something the DJ doesnt have. period
if lebron had that DOG in him, he'd be 4-2 instead of 2-4 in finals appearances maybe even 5-1.
this quality we speak of is not new and its not something that we are basically armchair quarterbacking about. the legends see it. chuck, shaq etc etc.
staying disciplined and running your sets is the start of it. run your set, if the defense switches on a CP3/BG pnr, and griffin has klay thompson on his back...the DOG has to kick in, no more posting at 15 feet, no more 360 pirouette jumpers. back him down and put the ball in the bucket. stuff it down his throat and spit on him.
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