Consistency beats front-loading

Picture two people digging for gold. One chips away, gets tired, gives up—and quits right before he would have struck it. The other keeps chipping until he hits the treasure.

That's the whole thing. Consistency is the theme. I watched a game where one team front-loaded, threw everything at the first half, and burned out; the other stayed even the whole way through, tortoise and hare, and won it on a tip-in at the buzzer.

When things are down, you just keep going. The gold is usually one more swing past where quitting feels reasonable.