I don’t know how Zaza “I hate Kawhi Leonard” Pachulia’s flat little jumpshots ever go in the rim, but he hit two of them last night and it’s actually been a staple of his limited offensive game for a long time. All I know is that whenever he would hoist one up when he was on the Bucks, I would duck for cover underneath my desk because I was afraid that his gigantic purple shoulder zits would explode and ooze pus all over me. Yet the shot still goes in a good percentage of the time. I don’t get it. Hubie Brown even asserted that you have to TAKE AWAY Pachulia’s jumpshot from him because he’ll torch you if you leave him open, whereas if you make him put the ball on the floor, he’ll probably screw it up. That’s nuts. I would just leave him open and hope his line drive jumpers rattle out of the rim.
Pachulia made his case for being put back into the starting lineup by outscoring his replacement JaVale McGee, who only attempted one field goal. I had a real strong narrative going where the Warriors were way better when starting McGee and that it was going to be Lob City 2.0 in the Bay, and now that narrative lies at my feet in shambles. Pachulia’s not going to be involved in any kind of Lob City revival because of his physical limitations, but maybe we can start calling him the Chu-Chu train or something. I don’t know. At least he didn’t injure anybody.