We had some controversy surrounding Saturday night’s game between Oklahoma City and Golden State. It revolved around a moment that featured Russell Westbrook and Zaza Pachulia, and it led to basketball fans bringing up the old allegations that Pachulia is a dirty player.
Westbrook went up for a shot attempt and was contested by Nick Young. Westbrook missed and Young came down with the ball before immediately dumping it to Steph Curry. The issue was Westbrook and Young had their legs get tied up, so both players hit the deck. It seemed purely accidental, the type of thing that happens during a basketball game.
What was interesting, though, was that Pachulia also hit the deck despite the fact that it didn’t look like he was caught in the middle of things. Here’s a video of the incident.
Zaza just fell hard on Russell Westbrook's legs on purpose… pic.twitter.com/BwXaCbFZgD
— Justin Jett (@JustinJett_) February 25, 2018
In fairness to Pachulia, it does look like Young’s left foot got caught behind his leg, although there are questions about whether that’s enough contact to bring him to the ground. Still, Pachulia has a reputation for being a dirty player, and Twitter made it a point to call him out after this happened.
Zaza just landed on Westbrook's legs intentionally! That's so dirty.
— Carson Cunningham (@Carson_OKC) February 25, 2018
Westbrook isn't being aggressive enough.
Zaza dove on Russ's leg on purpose. Wow.
— I Always Keep A Can Of Tuna On Me (@SnottieDrippen) February 25, 2018
There should be a players' court where Zaza Pachulia could be tried for his crimes against basketball.
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) February 25, 2018
Zaza had no reason to fall there
— Jon Hamm (@JonMHamm) February 25, 2018
So we gonna act like ZaZa didn't fall on Russ intentionally
— Jerrel Jackson (@Tripple_J3x) February 25, 2018
Yikes, Zaza dove on top of Russ before he could run back on D… 😖
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) February 25, 2018
https://twitter.com/NBAEVERYTHlNG/status/967600532994121728
Zaza just purposely fell on Russ…
— westbrookszn (@westbrookszn) February 25, 2018
Even Kyrie Irving felt the need to chime in on Instagram, calling on the NBA to take a look into Pachulia and calling this “ridiculous.”
https://twitter.com/T_Fieser3/status/967615188575940613
No foul was called on the play. As for the game, it was close for a half before the Warriors turned on the jets. Despite the fact that things got pretty testy, Golden State walked out of Oracle Arena with a 112-80 victory.
Have you checked out the DIME podcast?
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