“Somebody told me that when I was in Indiana, I think we won a Game 7 my second year there, and it was against Boston,” Brown suddenly recalled. "We finished sixth and they finished third and it ended up going to a seventh game and we ended up winning the seventh game in Boston.

“Offensive execution, as far as continuing to make the extra pass,” said Rivers, explaining the emphasis of the late-afternoon practice. “It’s not like we haven’t been saying it, but we showed them on film. They shake their heads sometimes. For the first quarter and a half (in the 74-69 loss in Game 6 on Friday), it was awesome. The ball never stopped. The ball never stuck. Then we get in these ruts, and it’s been a recurring theme. Once you get in them, it’s difficult to get out of them.”

How do you fix it?

“Trust,” Rivers said. “That’s what you’ve got to do in a big game. You can’t do it yourself. You’ve got to understand that you have to lean in to each other even more and trust your teammates.”

This is where the game will be won and lost