So you think that these young players would think that its ok to play great for just one half in the playoffs if they were never to make it into the playoffs?
I think that they are smart enough to know that they need to play great for the whole game against a number one seed in a playoff game even before they made the playoffs. I also think that they know that they need to shoot better than 50% free throws to beat good team in the playoffs.
As far as the level of intensity question.... i noticed it in the spurs home crowd for sure. However it didn't seem like alot of the players were more intense than in a big time regular season game.
I still saw Al being his slow self, i saw parker destroying us, I saw duncan with solid if unspactacular play, I saw bonner hitting threes.... In other words it looked just like jazz vs spurs in the regular season. Except for the crowd (they were very intense and awesome.)
Just because we didn't play well doesn't mean that we weren't playing with a different intensity. It just meant that:
1) The occasion got to us (we are wayyy less experienced in the playoffs setting/atmosphere); or
2) Spurs raised their game up a notch and we were unable to match it.
You can train & learn to swim in the pool all you like. But it's when your ship has sunk and you need to swim in the sea that you can realize what it's really like to do it for real.