Since the Winter Olympics are going on now, and the USA team hockey is doing well, granted, not as amazing as the 1980 crew coached by Herb Brooks, it makes me reflect upon our championship years and see that the KG era, had no miracle on ice moments.
Realize, not only did that hockey team play lock down defense on the Russians for a full final 10 mins, but they also came back from behind, to beat another contender, team Finland, for the final gold. Coach Brooks got everything out of his players and had spent an incredible amount of time, training the men to build their endurance, knowing perfectly well that the Europeans had the edge, skill-wise, and thus could keep up with the best, esp during duress.
In contrast to the above, in '08, we had the best bench in the NBA, but we only got to a shortened six game series, when Ray's shots started falling in Detroit. And then, in the LA series, there was no reason for us to not wrap it up in 5, as LA was not that great at the time, until Ariza & Odom got their acts together in '09.
And then, came the '10 to '12 playoffs, where it seemed like that whenever we needed to put out an opponent, a game or two would always slip away. I never saw the reason for the Philly series to go a full 7.