SAN FRANCISCO — You figured if the Spurs felt displeasure about the controversial Zaza Pachulia closeout — which injured Kawhi Leonard and completely changed Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals — Gregg Popovich would be the one to publicly express it.
He now has.
Popovich met with reporters at the team’s hotel on Monday morning and, after revealing that Leonard was in an MRI and would likely miss Game 2, was asked how much more difficult that would make it. He then went off on Pachulia.
“How much more difficult is it?” Popovich said. “Come on, man. How much more difficult is it? How would it be if Curry didn’t play? How much more difficult would that be? I’m not a happy camper. But that’s a silly question. The two-step lead with your foot closeout is not appropriate. It’s dangerous, it’s unsportsmanlike, it’s just not what anybody does to anybody else. This particular individual has a history with that kind of action. You can go back and look at the Dallas game where he got a Flagrant 2 for elbowing Patty Mills. The play where he took Kawhi down and locked his arm in Dallas and could’ve broken his arm. Ask David West, his current teammate, how things went when Zaza was playing for Dallas and he and David got into it. Then think about the history he’s had and what that means to a team, what happened last night. A totally unnatural closeout that the league outlawed years ago and pays great attention to it. And Kawhi’s not there. And you want to know how we feel about it? You want to know if that lessens our chances? We’re playing very possibly the best team in the league. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the East. But 9.75 people out of 10 figure the Warriors will beat the Spurs. Well, we’ve had a pretty damn good season. We’ve played fairly well in the playoffs. I think we’re getting better. And we’re up 23 points in the third quarter against Golden State and Kawhi goes down — like that — and you want to know if our chances our less and how we feel? That’s how we feel.”
Popovich was asked if he felt there was intent by Pachulia.
“Because he has this history, it can’t just be, ‘oh, it was inadvertent,’ ” Popovich said. “Who gives a damn about what his intent was. You ever heard of manslaughter? You still go to jail, I think, when you’re texting and you end up killing someone. All I care is what I saw. All I care about is what happened. And the history there exacerbates the whole situation and makes me very, very angry. Nobody wants to do anything that would put anyone else in danger for a game or a career. This guy’s history is different.”
Pachulia’s history was also noted by Spurs forward Danny Green, who said he witnessed similar incidents with the center throughout the years.
“He’s a chippy player,” Green said. “He’s one of those guys that does the dirty work for them and for whatever team he’s playing for. A couple guys on this team have gotten into it with him, guys on other teams got into it. It’s just his style of play, I guess.”
On the controversial play, Pachulia slid his foot under Leonard while contesting a 3-pointer. Green said his method for guarding jump shooters is different than the Warriors’ center.
“I’ve never done that before,” he said. “But I’m not a big man. I don’t know his coordination, what he was trying to do.
“We’re not happy about it, but the way I’ve guarded jump shooters, obviously they would have called foul. At the time they were arguing that it wasn’t a foul. I think it’s pretty clear that it was a foul. We have a different technique for guarding shooters.”
Popovich hasn’t reached out to league officials regarding the play seeking punishment for Pachulia, nor does he plan to. At this point, Popovich said, the NBA has already seen the play. His sole concern is Leonard’s absence.
“I don’t care what the league does,” he said. “I’m just telling you how I feel. The league is the league. They do what they do. I could care less.”
Right now, Leonard’s long-term future remains Popovich’s chief concern. It’s why he said the Spurs chose to sat the All-Star forward for Game 6 of the Rockets’ series after injuring his ankle the game before.
Should Leonard remain out for today’s Game 2, backup Jonathon Simmons will move into the starting line up at small forward. Simmons totaled 12 points, a rebound, an assist and a turnover in 26 minutes on Sunday. He also started in place of Leonard during Game 6 of the conference semifinals in Houston.
Warriors win, 113-111
Midway through the third quarter of Game 1, with the Spurs up by a comfortable 21 points, Kawhi Leonard took a step-back, high-rising corner fadeaway that — because he missed but was fouled — won’t even register in the official stat sheet.
But the result of the play altered the game and, potentially, changed the rest of the West Finals.
Upon landing, Leonard’s left foot landed on Zaza Pachulia’s right, twisting Leonard’s left ankle and sending him limping to the locker room for good. The Warriors immediately rattled off an 18-0 run and, over the next 20 minutes, outscored the Spurs by 25 points to rumble back for a wild 113-111 Game 1 win in Oracle.
From tip to the point of Leonard’s injury, the Spurs had complete control.
Leonard had 26 points in his 23 minutes. But on a similar shot in the corner moments before the Pachulia foul, Leonard twisted his ankle on teammate David Lee, who was on the Spurs bench. He asked out of the game, then returned again, only to twist it worse on Pachulia’s foot, knocking him out for the rest of Game 1 and maybe beyond.
“Did he step under it, like on purpose?” Leonard said. “No, he was contesting the shot, the shot clock was coming down.”
“I did my part to challenge the shot,” Pachulia said. “It was a hand-off situation. My teammate was behind the screen. That’s what I did, turned around for the rebound and that was it. I hate that anybody going down like that with injury. I’m an athlete, too. I know how it feels. Wish nothing serious for him because we are colleagues.”
“You can’t listen to people on Twitter,” Kevin Durant said. “They’re irrational.”
Regardless of how it happened, it happened. And suddenly the Spurs, already without starting point guard Tony Parker for the rest of the season, were without their MVP candidate, who, to that point, was the best player on the floor.
The Warriors pounced at the opportunity. Well, primarily, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant pounced. In the ensuing 18-0 run, which lit Oracle Arena up like nothing else this season, Curry hit a huge 3 and a 22-footer with his big toe on the line. Durant had two free throws, a layup and a drive and slam on slow-footed Kyle Anderson, Leonard’s replacement, who had little chance to slow Durant.
The Spurs stabilized a bit late in the third, but could only hold off the next avalanche for so long. Over the game’s final 20 minutes, Durant scored 20 of his 34 points, including a weaving fourth quarter layup that gave the Warriors their first lead since early in the game, and Curry scored 15 of his game-high 40, including a floater in the final minute that served as the game-sealing hoop.
The MVP duo combined for 74 of the team’s 113 points, shouldering the load for a 25-point comeback win that turned a still-impressive Spurs Game 1 performance into a gut-punch loss, leaving them down 1-0 in the series and unsure of the status of their star forward.
