Gan Guoyang's physical fitness indeed isn't what it used to be. After just a few minutes of high-intensity offense and defense, he's already out of breath.
Even though they're like this, they can keep panting from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, still able to play, but it can't compare to the leisurely strides of their younger days.
Beelman's timeout just gave Gan Guoyang a chance to catch his breath, and he thought to himself, Bobby is still too conservative, calling a timeout like this.
They should seize the window period where the Trail Blazers' momentum is gradually weakening, use the energy of the young players to close the gap in one go, bringing the point gap to within 10 points.
That's when you should call a timeout, or wait for the Trail Blazers to call one, which would be a better choice.
Unfortunately, when not coaching Gan Guoyang, Beelman doesn't have that kind of sensitivity.
As a head coach, Beelman doesn't have Larry Bird's court intuition, he's still too by-the-book.
Steve Nash has his own ideas though, during the timeout he said to Beelman: "We should push back a wave, not stop. Stopping will make it harder."
Nash's feeling is correct, what's the use of calling a timeout? To fight on the half court? That will just allow the Trail Blazers to slowly grind them to death.
It's better to charge, close the score gap, and force the Trail Blazers to adjust their lineup or pace, because the Celtics are the younger team.
Beelman realized that Nash was right, if Ah Gan were there, he would definitely wave his hand to indicate not to call a timeout yet. He would want to play a few rounds, keep the score close, and force the opponent to make changes.
But since the timeout was already called, it can't be retracted, Beelman could only take it as a lesson learned.
His past wealth of finals experience was actually incomplete, Ah Gan took on too much work for him.
Many times, he was more like an assistant coach assisting, rather than a head coach in control of everything.
Leaving the Trail Blazers, leaving Ah Gan, coming to the Lakers, coming to the Celtics, he finally became truly independent, walking by himself without crutches.
Beelman, steeled in determination, made adjustments; his tactical arsenal was still plentiful. He subbed out Ilgauskas, had Rick Fox play as the power forward, with Duncan coming to the center position.
This was a four-out, one-in lineup. Beelman knew he had to find a way to attack and close the gap; continuing to build firm defenses would only lead to a dead end.
They couldn't withstand the Trail Blazers' fierce bombing, so they might as well open the gates and go head-to-head with the Trail Blazers.
This tactic proved effective; dropping the Twin Towers and having Duncan as center, the Celtics' offensive space was completely opened up.
After the timeout, Rick Fox received a pass from Nash, hit a three-pointer from the corner, and helped the team to stop the bleeding.
Then Sabonis missed a shot, Duncan grabbed the defensive rebound, Nash drove the counter-attack, slipped out along the baseline, and passed to Duncan who was cutting through the middle.
Duncan caught the ball, attacked the basket, evaded Gan Guoyang's block, and slammed it in with one hand!
This slam dunk allowed Duncan to vent his frustration; it was not until this point that the young Celtics players finally started to perform like themselves.
Beelman realized that there had been too much restraint and repression on the young players. This group of guys were truly talented, and the stage of the finals should give them more room to showcase themselves.
Besides, he really was out of ideas.
The Celtics returned from the timeout and delivered a 6-0 run against the Trail Blazers, narrowing the point gap to 9.
However, the Trail Blazers didn't call a timeout and continued the game.
Slowing down the pace, Gan Guoyang received the ball in the low post, played a backdown move against Duncan.
The Celtics doubled up, Gan Guoyang missed a hook shot on the turnaround, Duncan defended well.
But Sabonis came over a bit and tipped the ball into the basket.
Without the Twin Towers, protecting defensive rebounds was going to be affected.
The Celtics continued to speed up, Nash like riding a mini-motorbike sprinted back and forth on both ends of the court.
He charged into the Three Second Zone again, slipped out, passed to the right corner, Bowen received the ball and took a three-point shot, made it!
Another three-pointer, Beelman clenched his fist, the Celtics were slowly clawing back, the point gap was now 8 points.
The Trail Blazers still didn't call a timeout, Sabonis received the ball at the top of the arc, facilitated, and passed it straight to the basket, where Gan Guoyang caught it.
Facing off against Duncan under the basket; if Duncan could defend this shot, the Celtics could counter-attack and get a score, shifting the momentum back to them.
But how could Gan Guoyang allow such a thing to happen? He had deep positioning, caught the ball, turned, and used strength to push Duncan away—there are only a few in the League who can defeat Duncan in a head-on power struggle under the basket.
But Gan Guoyang just happens to be one of them. Despite having slightly less weight than Duncan, he still squeezed out a gap with powerful force, quickly turned, pressed Duncan, and slammed it in with one hand!
A forceful and ferocious dunk, Duncan was directly knocked out of bounds, the basket bent under Gan Guoyang's weight, the net shook for quite a while before calming down.
In his late career, Gan Guoyang rarely dunked in games anymore, opting more for shooting and hook shots to finish.
But when needed, he could still destroy the basket, scoring while delivering a heavy blow to the opponent and boosting the team's morale.
This slam dunk not only stretched the point gap back to 10 points but also secured another victory in the old versus new confrontation with Duncan.
The atmosphere in the Rose Garden reached a new high; the big screen repeatedly played Gan Guoyang's explosive dunk. After scoring, he showed off his hot biceps to the fans.
The Celtics' counter-attacking momentum was thereby halted, their three-point shooting cooled down as well, Nash's forced three-pointer missed, and the Trail Blazers launched another counter-attack.