Russell Westbrook is vowing revenge against Zaza Pachulia after the Golden State Warriors big man fouled him hard on Wednesday night.
The Warriors had a foul to give with just seconds remaining in the first half, so Pachulia fought through a screen and collided with Westbrook. He then stood over Westbrook while the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard was rolling around on the floor. It was the latter act that irritated Westbrook.
“No, I didn’t see that until just now, but I don’t play that game,” Westbrook told reporters after his team’s 121-100 loss, per Royce Young of ESPN.com. “I’m gonna get his ass back. Whenever that is, I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I don’t play that game.”
Pachulia said he believed he stole the ball cleanly from Westbrook. Either way, he doesn’t care if Westbrook was hurt on the play.
“I thought it was a good steal, honestly, because I had the ball in my hands,” Pachulia said. “Officials called a foul; there’s nothing you can do. A foul is a foul. If it was a hard foul, it was a hard foul. There is nothing you can do. So you just move on. If he got hurt, that’s fine too. It’s part of the game.”
You can see a video of the play here.
When informed that Westbrook vowed to “get his a– back,” Pachulia said he is too focused on trying to win a championship to be concerned with comments like that.
“I’m not thinking about these kind of comments,” he said. “That team is not there, so they might be thinking about other stuff, like getting back. So, you know, OK, you can get me back.
“But this is my 14th year. We all know what my game is, to play hard. Not dirty, but play hard. If it was a hard foul, it was a foul. It wasn’t dirty at all, so I’m not worried about this.”
Westbrook finished the game with 27 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists for his 21st triple-double of the season. The Thunnder fell to 25-19 on the season while the Warriors improved to an NBA-best 36-6.
