I think you're right that he should be cutting back in MPG and learning to cruise a little bit more in the regular season, to save energy for the playoffs. I'm going to stick with my pop-psychology theory, in addition, though...he needs to focus less on the image-making and find a way to create a "they don't think I'm good enough" motivation that Jordan had from being called a loser that would never compare to Magic and Bird. Maybe this coming summer of people making jokes about him will do it. His joking on-camera about Dirk's illness seemed like something Jordan wouldn't have done: not because Jordan was a nicer guy, but because Jordan would have been too keyed up about the coming game to ham it up for camera (before the game...he loved hamming it up after winning the Finals).