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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE


June 8, 2017


Zaza Pachulia


Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. (No microphone.)
ZAZA PACHULIA: Playing the right way, be in the right places. Obviously, it starts with defense. Klay did a really good job on Kyrie, giving him a pretty good look and being physical and making him take tough shots. Offensively, obviously it's our talent and we did pretty good to find the open shot and got whoever was hot and that was KD in the first one-on-one against Tristan when he shot a three.

So it was a great couple minutes. I wish we had those kind of minutes throughout the game, but we played most important in the three minutes in the series at the end and we won the game. So feeling pretty good about 3-0. Third game's always the hardest game. Especially playing on the road. They got really great support from their fans and it's always hard to play in that type of environment.

But we were smart, we knew it was going to take 48 minutes for us to finish the game, up or down, good or bad, and that's really what happened. So, again, now all our concentration is on Game 4.

Q. You're up 3-0, you can close them out tomorrow night here at Quicken Loans Arena. Just them being defending champions, how difficult of a task do you think that will be to close them out here on their home floor?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Closeouts are always tough, even though in the previous series for us it was the easiest game. But again, if you look at a team, nobody wants to get swept, nobody wants to lose the series on their home court, and plus it's The Finals.

So they're going to do their best to get a win and make us go back to the Bay Area. But again we would like to close out the game and we want to finish the season right here. It's a great opportunity for us and this is a thing that's really special that's never happened before, 16-0. But we're not looking at a record, we just want a championship, and I think we are very capable of finishing perfect, so we're going to do our best.

Q. How is how the NBA sort of uses social media, streaming services, that kind of thing, how has that all helped grow the sport and the League in Georgia, as far as you can tell?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Social media not only helps the NBA, but it helps everything and everybody. A lot of businesses are taking advantage of it and it's one of the greatest things that ever happened in this century.

So obviously it depends how you use it, it might bring you something positive and help you, but it might destroy you as well. We have seen a lot of examples of it, of your personal life.

Yeah, but because the NBA is a worldwide global sport, it definitely made it easier for us to, in other countries, to follow, maybe not all games, but at least in clips, obviously if you make something spectacular, a couple seconds, the whole world gets a chance to see it. So it's pretty cool. You guys did a good job for creating those type of things.

Q. How does it feel to be one game away from being a champion?
ZAZA PACHULIA: Yeah, it's a great moment to be, right? I mean, up 3-0, you are one more win away from doing something special and winning the championship and being a world champ.

So we're excited, but at the same time we understand that it's not going to be easy, we have to bring our, the best game, and total concentration and hopefully we're going to play our best game of the series tomorrow and we're going to have a great chance to finish the series and win the championship.

Q. What would it mean to you as a foreign player to win a NBA title?
ZAZA PACHULIA: It's going to mean a lot. It never happened before. I'm excited because of the situation to, obviously I was proud to represent my country and my people and always proud to be Georgian. I think I'm the only international player, right, in The Finals?

So, yeah, it's a great feeling when you have so many, you have such a big responsibility and especially the way that those people are supporting you and following you.

It's been going on the last couple years now, especially in this moment, where you're so close. Even in the beginning of the season when I had a chance to become a world champ with this team and here we are now up 3-0 and one game away from making it happen.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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