Defense is one thing you can always count on. You can't always control whether you'll have a hot shooting night, but you can always play strong defense and tonight was a good example.
Basically, a manager's job is to make other people more productive. What's one really good way to do that? Do the work that is getting in their way. Which means find out what kind of important work your developers dislike the most, and do it for them.
It's kind of ridiculous that they fluctuate so much. It's almost like they're trying to get people used to paying higher prices, so when they do come down, they feel good about it. But they're still higher than they were.