Gregg Popovich goes on epic rant on Zaza Pachulia's closeout on Kawhi Leonard

If Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale thought he was getting away with the rant of the year — think again.

San Antonio Spurs‘ boss Gregg Popovich went on a verbal onslaught criticizing Golden State Warriors center Zaza Pachulia and his history of dirty plays with previous teams, citing just how deflating it is for the team to lose its best player in Kawhi Leonard, who was declared out of Game 2 moments ago.

The Spurs' talisman had a recurring left ankle injury flare up twice in the third quarter, first by tripping on his own bench and second after a hard closeout by Pachulia that knocked him out of the game for good.

Pop cited Pachulia elbowing point guard Patty Mills, locking arms with Leonard, and even scuffling with his current teammate David West when he played for the Spurs and Pachulia was part of the Dallas Mavericks.

“What happened last night was a totally unnatural closeout that the league has outlawed years ago and plays great attention to it,” Popovich told reporters. “Kawhi is not there and you wanna know how we feel about it? You wanna know if that lessens our chances from now?”

“We're playing very possibly the best team in the league, we don't know what's gonna happen in the East and 9.5 people out of 10 figure the Warriors will beat the Spurs.

“Well, we've had a pretty damn good season, we've played fairly well in the playoffs, I think we're getting better and we're up 23 points in the third quarter against Golden State and Kawhi goes down — like that — and you wanna know if our chances are less? And you wanna know how we feel? That's how we feel.”

“Follow up?,” added the always-sarcastic Popovich after displaying his frustration.

Popovich just went off… felt Zaza's close out on Kawhi was inappropriate #Spurs #Warriors pic.twitter.com/Y23hiz9swc

— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) May 15, 2017