AUBURN HILLS -- Charlie Villanueva fired back at Isaiah Thomas after the Sacramento Kings guard called the Detroit Pistons forward a "dirty player," and said he would appeal the $25,000 fine levied against him for an incident between the two Tuesday.

Villanueva was hit with a Flagrant-Two foul and ejected with four seconds left in the first half of the Pistons' 103-97 win after he leveled Thomas in the lane, and flashed a high forearm in doing so.

The 5-foot-9 Thomas levied his charge that the 6-foot-11 Villanueva's action was a response to another physical play between them moments earlier in an interview with The Sacramento Bee.

Villanueva dismissed the charge and denied there was any preexisting animosity before the play leading to his ejection and league-imposed fine.

"Dirty player? Not at all. I just saw an open lane, I tried to block (him) and he's 4-foot-11, 100 pounds wet, so it looks bad," Villanueva said. "But I'm not a dirty player. I didn't try to hurt him at all."

Villanueva said he was surprised that a Flagrant-Two was administered and he was ejected, calling it, "just a regular foul."

"He's a little dude, man. It looks worse than what it was," Villanueva said.

Thomas told The Sacramento Bee that the Villanueva incident "was a dirty play and he's a dirty player."

"A lot of guys do stuff like that knowing you can't really fight in this league," Thomas added.

Villanueva said he knew little about Thomas, a second-year player who has played 94 career games.

"He has less than 100 games? Wow. I didn't know that. He was a rookie last year? I didn't even know that. That's how much I know about him," Villanueva said.

Pistons coach Lawrence Frank was dismissive of any charge that Villanueva is a dirty player and added that the play looked worse on replay than at game speed.

"To me, that play is just a timing play, in that what Charlie is doing is he's trying to get his arm up to contest," Frank said. "It's just the timing that Isaiah Thomas got there quicker than he could react."

Villanueva noted he didn't instigate the minor post-incident skirmish that started when Thomas sprang to his feet and "came after me."

"I learned my lesson from the last time. I wasn't going to do anything but they still got me," Villanueva said.

Villanueva was involved in an April 11, 2011 fight with the Cleveland Cavaliers' Ryan Hollins in which he went to the Cavs' locker room after his ejection to challenge Hollins and had to be restrained by Auburn Hills police.

Villanueva served a four-game suspension for that incident but said he isn't taking this one so cooperatively.

"Definitely going to file for an appeal," he said. "I think it's a little too harsh. But they made their stand and you just go through the process."

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