Zaza Pachulia brings something significant to the table. ‘Nique calls it energy-I like to call it “offensive rebounding.” He’s been in the game seven minutes, and he has three offensive boards-though the last one was knocked out of his hands as he tried to go back up with it surrounded by three Grizzlies underneath the basket.
His good play filling in while Horford deals with a bit of early foul trouble demonstrates just how irrelevant Etan Thomas and Jason Collins really are (or at least, should be). He’s a fine third member of a solid post rotation. The Hawks have scored 30 points so far int he first between the strength of good shooting and strong rebounding.