A few random thoughts:

1) Our 36 and 5 start was deceptive, because we finished 28 and 13, which was very good, but not that much better than Miami, if it was better at all. As Micro pointed out, Miami gelled at a time when we were not at our best. Our fantastic start contributed to an overconfidence of the kind that afflicted the 2004 Lakers. Once that overconfidence was punctured (as it was by Cleveland), this team became very vulnerable.

2) The emphasis on getting home court advantage in the playoffs helped spur that 36 and 5 start, but it also led to very conservative coaching decisions regarding playing the bench. Flip would not play the bench during the regular season if it meant creating even a slight risk of a loss. We never found out what Cato, Davis and our rookies could do, and Delfino's confidence was shattered and never given an opportunity to be restored.

3) Flip was revealed in the playoffs to be a second or third rank coach who really had no positive impact on any of the games, either in terms of coaching decisions or motivation. He is not an elite coach, by any stretch, and it showed in the playoffs. Whatever Larry's faults, Flip does not even close to him in coaching ability (he looks bad by comparison to Riley as well). Flip's lack of emotional intensity (remember how Larry used to run up and down the sidelines barking instructions) was very evident, and he often had a kind of nervous or lost demeanor during tough times in these games (something that Larry, Riley and other elite coaches don't show). Unless Larry did something absolutely intolerable that we do not know about (e.g., threaten to resign during the NBA finals unless Davidson renogotiated his contract), I think in retrospect it made no sense to get rid of an elite coach, if all we had to replace him with was a middling coach who had never distinguished himself in the NBA. (To those who say that Larry was not fired, but instead quit, I must ask, "If he quit, why did we pay him seven million to buy out his contract?" Plainly, he was let go.)

4) Our newfound offense in the regular season was a bit of a mirage, because defensive intensity is so much greater in the playoffs than it is in the regular season, especially in the later rounds. As good as our three-point shooting and jump-shooting was during the regular season, our shooters are not the kind of great shooters that (like Wade) that can excel even in the face of a swarming, playoff-intensity defense. Rip is a good example. As good as he is, if he has a split second less of a look, he is prone to misses. We saw this in the San Antonio series last year (when Bowen was guarding him), and we saw it in the Miami series. When pressed defensively, he will force shots that at least for him are low percentage shots, rather than pass the ball.

5) The fact that our starting five has been together for so long was viewed by many commentators as a great accomplishment. But maybe having the same group together for so long leads to complacency. Riley realized he had to shake up the Miami team (both by making over the team and by assuming the coaching reigns), and maybe every team has to do that after a couple of years like the ones we had in 2004 and 2005. You can never stand still.

6) We fought for home court advantage during the regular season, which was understandable in light of the way things turned out in the finals last year. Buy maybe the emphasis on home court advantage was overdone, both by the players and by the coaching staff. Miami lacked home court advantage, and it did not hurt them in this series. Indeed, I wonder if we would have been better off playing our first two games in Miami in this series.