Kyrie: Zaza should've been punished for fall despite not injuring Russ

Warning: Story contains coarse language

Kyrie Irving doubled down on his demand for the NBA to take a closer look at Zaza Pachulia's latest dangerous play and do something about it.

The Boston Celtics point guard was outraged to see Pachulia fall on Russell Westbrook's legs last Saturday, writing on Instagram: "The league has to take a look at this man, that shit is ridiculous."

Though the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar emerged from the incident unscathed, he believes Pachulia deliberately tried to hurt him. The NBA ultimately chose not to penalize the Golden State Warriors center after he denied the accusations and dismissed them as "childish."

Related: It's on the NBA to punish Zaza Pachulia's dirty antics

Irving doesn't agree with the league's call to let the repeat offender off scot-free.

"We're talking about something totally different if Russ does get hurt and he has a 260-pound guy falling on his leg or his knee," he told The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn on Thursday.

"... But since Russ didn't get hurt, then it's like, 'OK then the play was clean.' I'm always thinking about the what-ifs and you never know what could happen in situations like that."

Here's the play in which Irving referred to Pachulia's actions as "unnecessary" and "unacceptable":

"We've seen it happen before for years and years with him doing (expletive) like that," Irving said. "I don't want the league to just suspend him for 10 games but you've got to take a look at it or something."

The last time the NBA did a deep dive on a Pachulia play, it was when he undercut Kawhi Leonard during Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference finals and forced the San Antonio Spurs superstar to miss the remainder of the campaign. The league responded by rolling out the "Zaza rule" this season, which empowers officials to call flagrant or technical fouls on defenders who don't give jump shooters enough room to land safely on closeouts.