Los Angeles Lakers star Russell Westbrook started to bleed from his forehead after taking an elbow to the head from San Antonio Spurs forward Zach Collins on Saturday.
In the third quarter, Westbrook rebounded his own missed layup and got Collins to bite on a pump fake. Collins then came crashing down on Westbrook, who began bleeding profusely. The Lakers guard immediately rose from the court to confront Collins, and the two had to be separated.
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Westbrook was walked back to his bench with a towel over his face as he bled. He was issued a technical foul for his frustrations after the foul, but Collins received a flagrant 2 foul and was ejected from the game.
"His health is more important than the game of basketball. So just tried to stop that and let the training staff do their job after we got him over to the bench," James told reporters after the game, via ESPN. "I actually saw the cut right when it happened once he got up off the floor and wanted to, uh, wanted to do something to Zach."
Westbrook said he wasn’t sure why he received a technical foul.
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He came back into the game with a bandage on the top of his head. He finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the 143-138 victory.
James had 39 points and 11 rebounds in the win. He had a career-high seven three-pointers.
Los Angeles is now 7-12 on the season after losing their first five games.
"It’s just a sense of you’re not really sure of each other, we don’t know each other," James said of the Lakers’ start to the season. "But over the last couple of weeks, we continue to learn one another, we continue to play some good ball, share ball."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
