Mavericks’ Pachulia understands why he missed crunch time vs. Nuggets

Those waiting for Dallas Mavericks center Zaza Pachulia to create a fuss because he sat out the entire second half and overtime session of Friday’s win over Denver due to a coach’s decision will be waiting for a long time.

Creating controversy is not Pachulia’s style. The 13-year veteran is a team-first type of player.

“It’s all about the team, it’s not something personal,” Pachulia said. “Of course it’s hard for me to watch the game from the sidelines.”

Coach Rick Carlisle went with a smaller lineup and started guard Raymond Felton in the second half. That strategy paid off as Felton scored the game-tying basket, and eight of the first 11 points the Mavs scored in overtime of their 122-116 victory over the Nuggets.

Pachulia, meanwhile, played just eight minutes and had no points and one rebound. Carlisle was in no mood to share with the media what he told Pachulia about the change in strategies.

“I’m not going to discuss in the press how I talk to players about changes during the game,” Carlisle said. “That’s not your business.”

The game against the Nuggets dictated that the Mavs needed to make the switch.

“I felt it was something we needed to do based on the dynamics of the game,” Carlisle said. “They were playing small.”

Carlisle, however, doesn’t believe playing small ball will solve all of his team’s issues. This is a case-by-case scenario that played out at that moment to try and outwit what the Nuggets were doing.

“Starting big gives us an opportunity to guard those [big] guys better and be a better rebounding team, which has been a challenge all year,” Carlisle said. “From there, we’ve got to adjust how we’ve got to adjust, and every game could be different.”

Sunday’s game against Minnesota was different as Pachulia started each half and finished with six points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes during the Mavs’ 128-101 win against the Timberwolves. No Mavs starter played in the fourth quarter against Minnesota.

As the Mavs prepare to host Orlando at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at American Airlines Center, Pachulia doesn’t know if he’ll be asked to sit and watch again if another situation arises like the one Friday.

“It depends how the game goes, and that’s why you make adjustments,” he said. “It’s about the feel of the game.

“If we’re doing a good job guarding the smaller guys and doing a good job offensively and playing with energy, I don’t see the reason to change it. But it’s a long season, and everybody’s going to go through ups and downs, so it’s very normal.”

Lee changed diet

Knowing that he probably would have been leaving the Boston Celtics for another team by the trade deadline two weeks ago, center/forward David Lee started preparing for the occasion.

And that includes changing his diet to include no more alcohol.

“Not that I really drank that much during the season, but I stopped drinking completely and really went to a pretty much protein and vegetable diet,” Lee said. “I still prepared and was eating before the games in case I was going to play, but the most part I did two or three workouts a day on my own.

“I give a lot of credit to the staff in Boston, not only the training staff but the nutritionist. They challenged me for six weeks — is basically what it was — to get in the best shape of my life, and I tried to do that.”

After his release from the Celtics, Lee signed a $2.1 million free agent contract with the Mavs. And in the past two games, he picked up 14 points and 14 rebounds against Denver, and 13 points and nine rebounds against Minnesota.

“[Celtics coach] Brad [Stevens] actually texted me this morning: ‘Congratulations on the last couple of games,’ ” Lee said. “No hard feelings there whatsoever. I think he’s a great coach and a great guy.”

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Mavericks’ Pachulia understands why he missed crunch time vs. Nuggets."