Battier as glue guy is nothing new. Just ask Hubie Brown. Or Jeff Van Gundy. Or Lionel Hollins.

But Battier as power-forward glue guy?

Again, that's where the Heat, correctly, balked at getting caught up in delineations.

"I don't know," Spoelstra said. "We don't necessarily look at it that we're small. I know everybody calls it 'small ball.' We have two forwards, neither one of them is a power forward. One of them is as big as anybody, OK. Chris is as long as any other center.

"And we look at the benefits of the flip side of that. You've got to make decisions against us, as well."

The Thunder tried, and failed. The lane opened for LeBron. The perimeter opened for Battier, Chalmers, Miller and Jones. Perkins and Serge Ibaka no longer could simply stand tall in the paint, as they did against the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs in the previous three rounds. Instead, they were sent in chase mode, unable to recover by the time LeBron was at the rim.

Granted, it is easier to play the versatility card when the versatility includes James, Wade and Bosh. But Brooks had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden and never quite was able to create similar chaos, save for dramatic rallies in the first two games of the Finals.

So as the NBA goes on hiatus, with a new, unique champion now coronated, the questions become:

Has Pat Riley developed a better way?

Or does he simply have better players?

Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat.

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