Lakers News: Zach Collins Discusses His Flagrant 2 Foul On Russell Westbrook

Per Collins, it was a genuine accident.

Late in the third quarter of last night's 143-138 Los Angeles Lakers win over the San Antonio spurs, a hard foul from Spurs center Zach Collins on backup L.A. point guard Russell Westbrook almost escalated into an actual on-court fight.

The hit on Westbrook from Collins was inadvertent, or so Collins claims. Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes that Collins is now looking to contest the Flagrant 2 foul ruling that he was whistled with by refs following an in-game video review.

"I shouldn't have jumped on [Westbrook's] pump fake, but I did," Collins reflected following the game. "And then the worst thing you can do is give up an and-1 in that situation, so I was just trying to come down and hit his arm so the ball wouldn't get up to the rim."

“It was a hard foul… but I don’t think Zach meant anything by that," Spurs point guard Tre Jones noted, per Orsborn. "He was just trying to prevent him from making the and-one.” 

San Antonio's big man depth had already taken a bit of a blow during last night's game, as starting center Jakob Poeltl and rookie power forward Jeremy Sochan, the ninth pick in this year's draft, departed the game for good in the first half with quadriceps injuries. Collins was playing major minutes in the third quarter due in part to their absences, so his ejection helped pave the way for an eventual Los Angeles win.

Collins scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field, while notching eight rebounds, two dishes, two blocks and a steal across just 19 minutes prior to the ejection. 

After getting stitched up by the Lakers' medical team, Westbrook did return to finish the game. The 6'3" vet concluded the evening with 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and a steal.