	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA GLOBAL MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

December 21, 2017

Zaza Pachulia

New York, New York

Q. You've been at the Warriors a while now. How much do you think you have contributed to the team, and how much do you think what you contributed last season is having an effect on how you're playing this term?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yeah, it's my second year with the team, obviously. I remember it was pretty tough to get adjusted. We took some time. It's a lot of learning process to go through playing defensive basketball, the personalities we have and talent we have. You have to fit in and learn each other's game, and the system is a pretty high tempo, pretty high pace. It took some time, but every day was better and better, watching film with the help of the coaches and teammates. After a couple games, couple months, I started getting more and more comfortable, and more understanding of what this team is all about. This team is all about expecting players to contribute to the best of their ability and to enjoy this game, enjoy this moment.

This year is totally different, honestly. Winning the championship was a huge boost for me and everybody else. Also, considering where last year we had seven new guys and this year only three, we feel more comfortable with each other. But at the same time, we understand we still haven't kind of played our best basketball, basically whatever we did in the playoffs last year. We're proud of it, but again, we're a deep team and we have a big picture where we're looking forwards to the playoffs. At the same time, we understand that the regular season is important for us to get better every single day.

Q. I just wanted to know how difficult or how easy has it been sitting out while the team keeps winning these games, and the second question is when can we expect you back on the court?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yeah, unfortunately injuries are part of the game, and it's very unfortunate that we're dealing with this many injuries. We have three guys from the starting lineup out: Steph [Curry], Draymond [Green] and myself. And then Shaun [Livingston] has been injured, Andre [Iguodala] missed last game. But we have a good streak going on. It just tells you how deep we are and the great players we have.

Looking at this roster, there are, I think, 11 players who have been starters in their careers. So it's pretty amazing we're having this much experience, and whoever we put out there is very capable to play the type of basketball that we are playing.

At this age, honestly, it's kind of boring to be injured. It's a slow process. It's a rehab, the same thing every day.

It's something that we're not used to because we play such an up-tempo game with the pace, and suddenly we have a slow pace. So it's not fun. It's not the best thing to deal with, but understanding that health is so important, and for us it's the key, it's the goal to be healthy and to be in the best shape possible for the future. That's why we need everybody in the playoffs and everybody playing their best game.

Q. I wanted to know does playing the Cavaliers on Christmas Day for the third year in a row make it a special game in terms of intensity and creating a rivalry?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yeah, this is going to be my second since it's my second year with this team. Obviously, we all know the history. We all know what this team has done the last couple years. It's very special, first of all, to be playing on Christmas Day and a great opportunity to play in front of the millions and millions of people all over the world where Christmas is a holiday. Everybody is with their families. People love watching basketball, NBA games, and the best teams competing against each other.

Obviously playing against the Cavs, it's even more special because the teams faced each other a couple times in a row in The Finals now. It's going to be pretty interesting, a pretty intense game, a lot of attention, and especially since one team is from the East and the other team is from the West, so it's only [one of two matchups in the regular season]. We're really looking forward to it, but at the same time, we understand that we have two more games until that game, and win or lose, it's not the end of the world. We had the experience last year where we lost [on Christmas Day at Cleveland] by just one point, but then we ended up winning the championship. This game doesn't kind of decide anything, but at the same time, of course we would love to win. We're going to do our best to win because it's for our confidence and it's for our fans and for our city, and again, understanding where we might face the same [team] in The Finals this year.

Q. The All-Star voting started today. The votes from your own country of Georgia gave you the eighth-most votes in the entire league last year. Are you somewhat disappointed that the All-Star voting system changed last year, or does the support from your home country outweigh the disappointment?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Thanks for asking me that question because honestly, first of all, I had no idea that All-Star voting started today. When it comes to disappointment, actually I'm proud of whatever happened. Most of my fans, being honest, are from Georgia, Georgia votes. People have been voting for me a lot. We made the league change the rules, so this is the proudest moment for me. And just being realistic, I'm not an All-Star-caliber player. I couldn't care less about those things, but it makes me proud and happy and something we can all be proud of that the league changed the rule because of us.

Again, the most important thing is that the love and support I've been getting from the fans. It's not easy to get, talking about more than 1.5 million votes and to be one of the top players in the league to get this many votes. It's pretty cool. It's fun for me. This is how I look at it. It's not about being an All-Star. It's all about the love and support I've been getting without me asking one single time to vote for me. It's all naturally just happening itself.

I'm just enjoying the process. I don't know what's going to happen this year. My job is to play and to get healthy right now and to represent the Warriors in a professional way on the court.

Q. My question is about the Rockets. What do you think is the most dangerous thing about them? You know they have Chris Paul and they are playing good.
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yes, they are playing good. I think they got better this year with the additions they made this summer. They put more defensive-minded guys in the roster, so that's definitely helping them. But it's a long season. We can't be worried about others. We've got to be worried about whatever is in our control, whatever is in our hands. I feel pretty confident as far as when we have everybody healthy and back playing at a high level, we can beat anybody.

At the same time, their team definitely got better. They've been playing amazing right now, but again, it's a long season. The playoffs are ahead of us. We might face them; we might not. We don't know yet. But they're definitely playing better than last year.

Q. You guys played the Celtics recently. I was wondering if you could get us a perspective in how Kyrie Irving's game has changed or evolved since he moved to Boston, and does his play suggest there the team most likely to come out of the East this season?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yeah, I really like the way they're playing. They have really talented players. Really well-coached, and the fan base apparently is amazing. They definitely have a chance to come out of the East.

It's very unfortunate that they had this injury with Gordon Hayward, very sad. Hopefully, he's going to be back soon because as a colleague and as an athlete, basketball player, you don't want anybody to go through that pain and the injury. But they're still playing high level. They're still playing great and have really good talent over there. Kyrie is leading this team, really good player. So yeah, it's going to be interesting. As a conference, there are a couple teams that can definitely have a chance to go to The Finals.

But at the same time, when we played [the Celtics] we were up by pretty big and we just lost that game. I kind of blame it on ourselves that we just lost the concentration towards the end. We're looking forward to playing them again here at home in Oracle.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297