Faried on Blake bodycheck: 'I fell down to make sure the ref saw it'

On Sunday, 6-foot-3, 172-pound Portland Trail Blazers point guard Steve Blake levelled 6-foot-8, 228-pound Kenneth Faried with a bodycheck, sending the Denver Nuggets power forward flying.

Unhappy with a back-pick that caught him by surprise, Blake lowered the shoulder into Faried's chest, sending him sprawling. Blake trains in mixed martial arts and lowered the boom here, earning his flagrant foul, but Faried made it seem after the game like he played it up for effect.

“He got mad I back-picked him,” Faried said after the game. “I’m playing offense, I’m making sure my point guard got open, and he ran into the back pick trying to go to my point guard. Then he got mad about it and pushed me. Yeah, I fell down to make sure the ref saw it."

Falling down to make sure the referee sees something certainly sounds like flopping, so it will be interesting to see if Faried is given a warning from the league office. Faried was not willing to embellish whether or not Blake hurt him.

"No," he said. "Not at all."