Russell Westbrook and Zaza Pachulia have different opinions on whether Pachulia intentionally fell directly on Westbrook’s knee in the third quarter of the Warriors 32-point win over the Thunder on Saturday night.
Did Zaza Pachulia intentionally fall on Russell Westbrook’s knee?
Pachulia has a history of dirty plays, and many believe he targeted Westbrook’s knee against the Thunder.
“What did it look like?” Westbrook said, via The Norman Transcript’s Fred Katz. “Did anybody touch him? ... Obviously it was intentional. Nobody touched him. He fell on my leg. He tried to hurt me. But hey. That’s how that goes.”
Pachulia responded: “No comment,” via ESPN’s Chris Haynes. “That’s childish. Come on. I’m not responding to that.”
Westbrook attacked the basket with under 2:30 left in the third quarter and was upended midair during a layup attempt. Pachulia, who was trailing the play, then fell directly onto Westbrook’s knee, causing him to grimace and writhe in pain on the floor. No one was behind Pachulia, and no one pushed him on the play.
Westbrook has knee injury history. He underwent three surgeries between April and December of 2013 after he tore the meniscus in his right knee. Pachulia fell on Westbrook’s left, but when Westbrook was asked if he thought Pachulia is a dirty player, he responded: “Yeah. For sure.”
Pachulia surely has a reputation as a dirty player
One Twitter user strung together a thread that highlighted nine previous plays where Pachulia appeared to intentionally opposing players. After all, it was Pachulia who accidentally slid underneath Kawhi Leonard during the Western Conference Finals, turning a 23-point Warriors deficit into a 4-0 series sweep of the Spurs.
Saturday night’s incident was the second that included Westbrook after Pachulia hit Westbrook in the face when the Thunder traveled to Golden State last season.
The fall onto Westbrook’s knee caused concern among basketball fans social media. Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving commented on the replay on Instagram: “The league has to take a look at this man, this shit is ridiculous!!”
Westbrook’s teammate, Paul George, also addressed the play with pool reporters after the game.
“I’m gonna take the Russ approach to this. Did you see it?” George said, via The Oklahoman’s Brett Dawson. “You know Zaza, you know his history, and you know nobody pushed him. He aimed where he was going to fall.
“That’s Zaza making a Zaza play. He’s on the end of hurting a lot of guys.”
Was it a dirty play?
It damn sure looked like it. No one was even close to Pachulia when he fell onto Westbrook, and the fact that he fell over directly onto Westbrook’s knee doesn’t make matters any better.
Yes, momentum is a real thing. Pachulia is a big, seven-foot guy, and big seven-foot guys aren’t supposed to be running too, too fast. Pachulia was trailing on the play, and stopped at Westbrook. But then he fell over, and things get real iffy there.
We’ll never know if Pachulia did this on purpose. He has the history of someone who might think to do these things intentionally, and the video sure doesn’t lie. Either way, the NBA will probably take a look at this.
Expect to hear something from the league at some point.
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