LeBron James responds to Isaiah Stewart saying James intentionally hit him

With the Los Angeles Lakers preparing to host the Detroit Pistons Sunday, the storyline entering the contest is circling back to the altercation between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart.

Now that both James and Stewart have served their respective suspensions stemming from the incident — James served one game while Stewart did two — both players are reflecting on what had happened.

Stewart recently addressed the media about the incident for the first time and said he felt James didn’t do it on accident, which James and the Lakers claimed was the case.

After the Lakers lost to the Kings, James discussed the incident again as the Pistons come into Staples Center.

“I don’t go into a game and make it an individual thing,” James said. “I saw his comments and he felt it was intentional or it wasn’t an accident. I’ll go on the record again and say it was (an accident).

“The actual chop down was on purpose, to get his arm off of me, that part was on purpose. But the point of my hand hitting his face was not. You can go through literally numerous of plays in the NBA where guys are chopping down on guys’ arms or on hands trying to get them off of them, and if you really look at the play closely, he kind of got off-balanced when I chopped down and that’s how his head went into my hand.”

James added how what happened isn’t what he stands for and discussed what he’s thinking about heading into the contest.

“It wasn’t intentional at all. I’ve never been that player. I’ve never, ever tried to seek a face contact like that. It’s just not a part of my game or a part of basketball at all,” James said. “So I don’t go into that game with any expectation besides us trying to come out victorious and get back to .500. That is the most important thing, and that’s always been my mindset.”