Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard took a clothesline from New Orleans Pelicans center Kendrick Perkins on Friday and tumbled to the floor. It was one of the nastiest fouls of the year, and it took a little while for Lillard to get back up.
Perkins was rightly called for a flagrant-2 foul, so he was ejected. Lillard called the play "dirty," but didn't exactly sound mad about it, via blazers.com's Casey Holdahl:
“I wasn’t sure if he meant to do that because during the play he came across my chin and my neck, so I really wasn’t sure what he was going for,” said Lillard of the play, which resulted in Perkins being hit with a flagrant 2 and ejected. “It actually kind of shook me up a little bit because I’ve been having some issues. I’ve gotten hit in my back a couple times and my neck snapped back a few times, so when he did it, he kind of made my head go back. It was a tough play, so I just tried to lay back because I knew I was going to be shooting free throws. I just needed to lay down and gather myself.”
…
“Plays like that happen, that’s the bottom line,” said Lillard. “It’s going to take a lot more than that to take me out, but that doesn’t take away the fact it was a dirty play. They kicked him out the game, we got free throws and the ball, that’s it.”
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“It was dirty for sure, but it’s a physical game,” said Lillard. “I’m from Oakland, I’ve been punched before, I’ve been tackled before. It was a cheap play, but to me, it didn’t feel as bad as it might have looked. My focus was on winning the game and that was just two points easier than it probably would have been if I had gotten to the rim.”
If you missed the play, here's video, via Blazer's Edge:
The guard from Oakland got the last laugh, as the Blazers beat the Pelicans 117-112. Lillard finished with 33 points on 9-for-19 shooting and made all 12 of his free throw attempts, continuing to make his case for an All-NBA inclusion despite the fact he didn't make the All-Star Game.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers were unhappy that Perkins wasn't re-signed. They saw him as an enforcer, and they no longer have one. If this is the kind of "play" that enforcers make, though, then the NBA doesn't need them.
