The Oklahoma City Thunder were involved in another chippy affair against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night that featured some intense moments. It was a game that saw the Thunder on the receiving end of some of the physical play that wound up causing more frustration on the court.
One of which involved Warriors veteran Zaza Pachulia questionably falling onto Russell Westbrook's leg. Like Westbrook, Paul George also called out Pachulia for what he believes was an intentional fall onto his teammate's legs, per ESPN's Royce Young.
Paul George on the Pachulia play: “I’m going to take the Russ approach: Did you see what happened? You know Zaza, you know his history. Nobody pushed him. He aimed his fall … He’s on the end of hurting a lot of guys.”
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) February 25, 2018
Pachulia's actions are reasonable to question given that these type of acts are no stranger to him to be involved with over the last seasons. In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, he had stepped under All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard's legs that caused him to aggravate his ankle sprain and eventually get shut down for the rest of the playoffs. It contributed to change the entire dynamic for the Spurs without their best player and gave them no chance to possibly challenge the Warriors.
It was an action that created a “Kawhi Leonard” rule in order for it to not happen again on the court without any immediate repercussions. Pachulia's history with Leonard in this aspect dates back to his days with the Dallas Mavericks that saw him grab a hold of the two-time Defensive Player of the Year's arm as he was falling to the ground that could have significantly injured him in the process.
This also wasn't the first time that he was involved in a questionable play with Westbrook as last year, he gave the Thunder point guard a hard screen to which he preceded to stand over Westbrook as he laid on the ground. There's much more to this as the league will likely look further into the situation that could include a fine and possible suspension for his action.
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