Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić calls out Thunder’s Lu Dort after ‘unnecessary’ tripping ejection

The Oklahoma City Thunder picked up a gritty 127-121 overtime win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, but the topic of conversation after the game was not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s tremendous play in his first game back or Oklahoma City winning overtime with Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench after playing 34 minutes in regulation. 

Instead, it was about Lu Dort purposefully tripping Nikola Jokić in the fourth quarter as he ran back up the floor and the ensuing kerfuffle that had Jokić as angry as anyone’s ever seen him on the court. 

Dort was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected, while Jokić and Jaylin Williams were each given technicals for their altercation afterwards. Officials deemed Dort’s trip “unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury,” which is why it was elevated to a flagrant 2 upon review. The backboard camera angle clearly shows Dort’s intent to trip Jokić. 

When asked about it after the game, Jokić’s feelings on the incident hadn’t changed, and he felt his response and fury were a “necessary reaction” to being tripped. 

“There is no such thing — I think there’s not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor,” Jokić said. “So, it was just an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction by me.” 

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault’s reaction to the ejection was simply to expect this ruling to become precedent for any future tripping incidents involving any players, not just high-profile stars. 

“I will say this: If [Jaylin Williams] is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant 2 from this point forward,” Daigneault said. “That’s all. If that’s the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play and flagrant 2 is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it’s [Williams]. We would expect that if it’s anybody. And if that’s the case, we’re good.”

When pressed on whether he felt it was only ruled a flagrant 2 because it was Jokić who was tripped, Daigneault felt he’d made his point. 

“No, I’m not going to answer the question like that,” Daigneault said. “I said what I needed to say about it.”

It wasn’t the first incident involving Jokić in the game, as he and Gilgeous-Alexander got tangled up in the first quarter and Gilgeous-Alexander was given a technical foul for throwing the ball at Jokić. Because tensions were already high and there had been multiple smaller incidents during the game, the referees were trying to take control and keep things from spiralling. That, coupled with Dort’s history, resulted in the flagrant 2 being assessed in part because of the act and in part to try to keep the game from having any more dust-ups. 

In that way, the ruling was successful as the two teams played the final 13 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime without any more scuffles. And while Daigneault was unhappy with the flagrant 2 decision, the Thunder were able to rally in large part due to Dort’s replacement, Alex Caruso, who buried two critical three-pointers late in regulation that helped OKC send the game to overtime. In OT, the Thunder left Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench after playing 34 minutes (and scoring 36 points) in his first game back from injury, and the Thunder’s depth was on display with Cason Wallace, Caruso and Isaiah Joe leading the way offensively. 

That finish ended up as the secondary storyline to the Jokić-Dort kerfuffle, but it’s all laying the foundation for a potentially incredible playoff series if these two meet again in May or June. The teams met in last year’s Western Conference semifinals, a heated series the Thunder took in seven games.