This substitution is very bold and quite confusing. Replacing one of the Twin Towers with the veteran Green?
Because Bird realized that Rick Smits was specifically targeting Sabonis.
Mobilizing Sabonis, forcing Gan Guoyang to take on some center responsibilities, but ultimately passing to avoid Gan Guoyang.
The Pacers came prepared. Adelman and the Pacers' assistant coaching team are very familiar with the Trail Blazers' Twin Towers' playstyle.
So Bird immediately made adjustments, putting Gan Guoyang back in the center position and placing the veteran Green at the power forward position to block the Pacers' inside-outside connection.
The Trail Blazers' previous consecutive victories were led by Carl, who practically won lying down.
After Bird returned, some games were won with ease, while some wouldn't have been won without Bird's timely adjustments.
