Andrew Bogut is the Golden State Warriors' defensive enforcer, a 213cm tall starting centre who intimidates opponents, sets screens for his shooters and protects his team's basket.
Hours before the Golden State faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in Thursday's game four of the NBA Finals Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr walked up to the Australian.
"You're not starting," Kerr told Bogut.
Bogut wasn't surprised.
Two days earlier the Warriors were outrun and hustled by a more mobile Cavaliers' crew, with another Australian, Cleveland guard Matthew Dellavedova, combining with the great LeBron James to win and take a 2-1 series lead.
Desperate not to fall further behind in the best-of-seven series in game four, Kerr needed to make an adjustment and the big man from Melbourne was the casualty.
Bogut was replaced by the agile 198cm shooting guard/small forward Andre Iguodala in the starting lineup.
It was a masterstroke and the Warriors, despite a hostile 20,562 crowd in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, outran the Cavaliers 103-82.
With the series even at 2-2, the teams will face off on Sunday on the Warriors' home court in Oakland, California.
"I didn't play well the last two games that we lost and I knew there would be some sort of change or tweak because he's (Kerr) a smart guy and it worked out well," Bogut said.
"So, I have no gripes."
The Cavaliers looked drained after their inspired game three victory on Tuesday where Dellavedova threw himself across the floor and into the stands and was so physically drained he had to be hospitalised.
James has also been herculean, averaging 41 points a game as he carried his injury-devastated team.
With a slick, small Warriors' unit, the battered Cavaliers couldn't keep up.
Dellavedova, who suffered cramping, had 10 points from a woeful 3-14 shooting, including 2-9 behind the three-point line in more than 33 minutes on the court.
He denied he was suffering physically on the court.
"No, I was 100 per cent," Dellavedova said.
"I just needed to play better."
Cavaliers coach David Blatt said Dellavedova "gave us 100 per cent of what he had".
"He played his heart out like he always does," Blatt said.
LeBron James had 20 points and 12 rebounds in another brave 40-minute effort and had to have stitches in his head after a hard foul from Bogut, who played a little less than three minutes.
After being hit by Bogut under the basket James went head first into a camera man.
Bogut said he didn't push James into the camera.
"I think he jumped into the camera man," Bogut said.
"He came down, took two steps and then fell into the camera man."
As tired as Dellavedova was, defensively he still was able to frustrate and limit Warriors' NBA MVP Stephen Curry to just nine points from 4-8 shooting while he guarded him.
With other Cavaliers guarding Curry, the Warriors guard managed to end the game with 22 points on 8-17 shooting.
Curry said the Warriors' game plan was to ramp up the defensive pressure on Dellavedova.
"He obviously has a game plan for his defence on us to try to get into you and do whatever he can to make you uncomfortable so you go and do it back to him and make him work on the offensive end," Curry said.
"... I think it worked."
Iguodala, who didn't start a game all year, had 22 points and eight rebounds.
Cavaliers' 216cm centre Timofey Mozgov, without Bogut to joust with, had a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds, but that was fine with the Warriors.
"You're going to take the chance of Mozgov beating you than LeBron beating you," Warriors' 201cm forward Draymond Green, who played centre, said.
The Warriors praised Bogut for accepting the limited role.
"All he said is, 'If we win I don't care'," Green said.
"That's what it's about.
"It's what has made this group successful."
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