Zaza Pachulia used his big head in more ways than one in the Atlanta Hawks' 88-84 win over the Orlando Magic in Game 3 of the first round series between the two clubs on Friday night at Philips Arena.
↵The Atlanta backup center smashed his oversized noggin into Jason Richardson's head with 2:22 left in the game. Luckily for us, the path from the other side of the court was clear and Zaza's head smash was in the line of sight of Getty Images photog Kevin C. Cox, who recorded this little diddy for posterity.
↵
It will be interesting to see what the NBA does about this little scrape up. The fracas all started because Pachulia hacked Dwight Howard, who responded with an elbow to the throat. An upset Zaza started yelling and Jason Richardson got in his face.
↵After Zaza threw down the headbutt, Richardson responded with kind of one of those girl-slaps you'd see in a movie. Both players were ejected from the game. If the league interprets the headbutt or the slap as a punch, one or both of the players will get suspended for at least one game under NBA rules.