It was just an accident after all. Zach Collins was ejected from the Spurs vs. Lakers game after his Flagrant 2 foul on Russell Westbrook that caused the Lakers PG to go down with a bad head injury, but I think his ejection was a little uncalled for.
I honestly believe that the whole situation was just an unfortunate accident.
Prior to that moment, that game was utterly devoid of physical, rough ‘moments’ (ie: like the Collins foul) as this version of the Lakers and Spurs aren’t really rivals. There was no emotion or hatred running in the game. Sure, there’s a long, fierce history between these two franchises that peaked during the Kobe-Shaq era for Los Angeles and the Parker-Duncan-Ginobili era for the Spurs during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
But those days are long gone.
If Zach Collins was playing for the Spurs and Westbrook for the Lakers back then, and the Spurs center made that play, then I’d be more inclined to believe that he was intending to injury/hard-foul Westbrook. But, seeing the sorry state both of these franchises are currently in, it made no sense for Collins to actively seek to injury Westbrook in that moment. The game was of too little consequence for such a purposeful foul.
Plus, not only was the score close (LA was leading 99-92), but Spurs were actually in the midst of a Lakers 9-2 scoring run. Why would Collins want to annoy Los Angeles and give them even more fuel to continue their scoring onslaught by trying to decapitate Russell Westbrook? He wouldn’t have.
That’s why I know that Collins was just trying to make a play on the ball but missed and smacked Westbrook with his elbow in the forehead instead.
Of course, Westbrook’s profusely bloody face and his irate outburst didn’t help Collins’ situation as the referees immediately went to the monitor and assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and an ejection to the Spurs center.
In my opinion, that was the refs failing to remove themselves from the heat of the moment as if they were truly looking at the foul (and not everything that transpired afterwards), then they would have realized it was a Flagrant 1 AT MOST.
But, hey, what does it matter now? The Lakers pulled off the win to get to 6-11, the Spurs continued their tank for Wembanyama, and I doubt Collins is going to receive a suspension from the league.
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