The Little Things
Sports matches, series, seasons are comprised of hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of moments, plays and decisions. However, often a game, series or even championship may come down to very few moments or even one decision. I know this full well being a 49ers fan and seeing how they dealt with their final third down play of regulation in the Super Bowl where a first down would have allowed them to run the clock down and kick a FG to win. They didn't pick up the CB blitz, Brock was pressured and the pass to CMC was incomplete while Brandon Aiyuk stood wide open on the other side of the field. Had Aiyuk alerted Brock the DB was lining up offset, different outcome, had the 49ers run when Chiefs were selling out for the pass different outcome. One of the amazing things about sports is how tens of thousands of decisions can lead to a moment where one decides the final outcome for all of them.
The Boston Celtics are a superior team to the Indiana Pacers, but the Pacers are fast and scrappy. The Celtics lead the series 3-0 so at first glance one would think that makes sense they are the better team but the series could very easily be 2-1 Pacers. In game one the Pacers had a 3pt lead with 30 seconds left in the game. If they had fouled the Celtics would not have been able to tie without fouling themselves to extend the game and hope for a miss. Instead Brown hit an incredible 3 pointer from the corner to tie the game and the Celtics won in OT. In game 3 last night with the Celtics ahead by 1 and 7 seconds remaining the Pacers chose to push the ball up court instead of taking a timeout and setting up a play to try to hit a winning shot. The play was rushed, out of control and defended by one of the best defenders in the league. It led to a turnover and the Pacers never got a chance to take a potential game winning shot. Tough to go down without a shot.
In sports, like in life, sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference in the world.
Sats for all,
GR