Brett Brown, the Philadelphia 76ers head coach, is fond of saying, "The pass is king." As the Boston Celtics extended to a 3-0 lead against Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals, making seemingly every big play, some Celtics staffers began whispering their own version: "Toughness is king."
The last slide of the film edit that Brad Stevens, Boston's coach, showed his team before Game 3 in Philadelphia contained a definition of toughness Stevens found recently in a book (he can't recall which one; he reads a lot): "Toughness is being able to physically and emotionally perform your task through any condition.