Lakers center Dwight Howard has been fined $35,000 by the NBA for knocking Denver forward Kenneth Faried to the floor in the Lakers’ loss Wednesday to the Nuggets.

Although Kobe Bryant called Howard’s flagrant foul type 2 and immediate ejection the “right call,” the Lakers strongly argued Howard didn’t warrant a suspension.

“I shouldn’t get penalized for fouling somebody hard,” Howard said. “My intentions weren’t to hurt anybody. It was just a hard foul. I’ve been fouled harder and nothing has happened. They can’t put me on a different scale because I’m a strong guy. A foul is a foul.”

via Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News