Does Coaching Matter in the Playoffs?

That's the question posed today over at Fan-tastic. Before you laugh it off, take a look at their evidence:

• Pat Riley: swept in the first round of a title defense.

• Phil Jackson: down 3-1 with a team featuring the leading scorer in the league.

• Avery Johnson: down 3-1 to a huge underdog opponent.

• Sam Mitchell: down 3-1 to a small underdog, a few weeks after winning coach of the year for the first time.

Now look, obviously coaching alone can't win games. This isn't college basketball. But it should give a team an added boost, shouldn't it? Coaches shouldn't be totally at the mercy of their players' success or failure--they should be able to step in and influence it when necessary.

Granted all of these teams are facing different situations. You could argue that of all these coaches, Riley is most deserving of a pass, seeing as his team was physically broken. Then again, this also makes it look like he totally rode Wade's talent to a championship last year. Otherwise, there would be some middle ground between a championship and a first round sweep. Or in the case of Avery Johnson: Shouldn't last season's Coach of the Year be able to assert himself a little?

There's a lot of talk about players stepping it up, but the same responsibility should be placed on the coaches. Okay, so Dirk is having a lousy series. If Avery is such a master strategist, why can't his wisdom find a way around this?