USA/ARG - No Love lost with Scola

MINNEAPOLIS (NBA) - Team USA's Kevin Love and Argentina's Luis Scola are two of the fiercest competitors in basketball, which is evident every time they wear their national team jerseys.

Neither will shy away from physical contact, which has been evident in their NBA meetings of late.

Love, who plays for Minnesota, has gone toe-to-toe with Scola and the Houston Rockets three times since January 23 and in the latest clash on Saturday in Minneapolis, a play in the third quarter involving the two international stars has fans buzzing.

Scola spun to his right and tried to attempt a lay-up when Love reached in and batted the ball out of hands.

The Argentinian power forward fell to the floor and Minnesota retrieved the ball.

As Love ran started to run up the court, his left foot landed on Scola's chest and face.

The Houston bench, and Scola, were hit with technical fouls for complaining that no foul was called.

When asked after if he could tell if the foul had been intentional, Scola answered: "No, I can't. If it was intentional, they didn't call it so at this point I don't care.

"I'm more angry about the foul that they didn't call before. I thought it was a clear foul. I just don't know what happened.

"What I think was a foul the ref didn't call," said Scola.

"Then I didn't know what happened. I was on the floor. I know he stepped on me. I couldn't see why."

Love, who apologized to Scola after the game, said: "He just kind of laid there and I've got size 19 feet so… I just happened to be there. I had nowhere to go. I got kind of tripped up and I just had nowhere to step, he was right there.

"It was a heat of the moment type of play and he was right there and it happened to be his face, just like in Houston like it happened to be my groin."

Love tried to defuse the situation.

He said: "I've always had a large amount of respect for Luis so … I'm sure he didn't take it personal; it was nothing personal towards their team. They have a lot of great players, they're well coached. Like I said, it's nothing personal."

Both players have been named in their country's pre-Olympic squads.

FIBA