Nuggets' Jokic calls out Thunder's Dort for 'unnecessary' foul - ESPN

OKLAHOMA CITY — After Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic tumbled to the Paycom Center court early in the fourth quarter Friday night, he determined that he needed to react to what he considered a dirty tactic by Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort.

A chippy game between rivals who faced off in a seven-game series in last season's Western Conference semifinals escalated into a heated confrontation at that point, resulting in Dort's ejection and double technical fouls on Jokic and Oklahoma City center Jaylin Williams.

The fracas began when Dort appeared to trip Jokic as he ran up the court with 8:03 remaining in the fourth quarter. Dort backed into Jokic and stuck out his right foot, knocking down the big man, who quickly pounced to his feet to angrily confront Dort.

«It's an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,» Jokic said after the Nuggets' 127-121 overtime loss to the defending champions. «There is no such thing — I think there's not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor. So, it was just an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction by me.»

After Jokic chest-bumped Dort, Williams rushed over to intervene. Jokic and Williams exchanged shoves and grabbed each other's jerseys as a scrum of players, coaches, officials and staffers formed around them and eventually separated them.

«Just competing,» Williams told ESPN. «Two teams competing, that's it. That's all I got.»

After a review, the foul called against Dort was upgraded to a flagrant foul 2, resulting in an automatic ejection. Crew chief James Williams told a pool reporter that the officials «deemed [Dort's] contact on Jokic to be unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury.» Williams also cited the contact leading to an