Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić typically doesn’t show much emotion. But on Friday night at Paycom Center, he showed plenty. With 8:03 left in the fourth quarter and the Oklahoma City Thunder clinging to a 90-88 lead, Lu Dort backed into Jokić running up the floor and stuck out his right foot, sending the three-time MVP tumbling to the hardwood. Jokić was back on his feet in an instant, and he went straight for Dort’s face.
Dort was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected. Double technical fouls went to Jokić and Thunder center Jaylin Williams, who rushed in to intervene and ended up grabbing jerseys with the Nuggets star before coaches and officials separated the two. Oklahoma City held on to win 127-121 in overtime, but the altercation was the story.
What Nikola Jokić Said After the Final Buzzer
Postgame, Jokić was direct. “It’s an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,” he told reporters.
Crew chief James Williams said the call was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 because officials “deemed his contact on Jokić to be unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury, and also because the contact led to an altercation that did not dissolve.”
Nikola Jokic loses it after Lu Dort trips him
— BasketballMuse (@basketballmuse0) February 28, 2026
Jaylin Williams kept it brief. “Just competing,” he said. “Two teams competing, that’s it. That’s all I got.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault framed his response as a challenge to the officiating precedent. “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 anybody. And if that’s the case, we’re good.”
The frustration on Denver’s side ran deeper than one play. The Nuggets have gone 4-7 since Jokić returned from a monthlong absence, and 1-6 in clutch games during that stretch. Jokić recorded his league-leading 22nd triple-double Friday, finishing with 23 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists. But he also shot 9-of-25 from the field and 2-of-10 from 3-point range, and his postgame body language reflected a team that knows it’s bleeding games it shouldn’t.
Oklahoma City’s side of the story centers on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was back after missing nine consecutive games with an abdominal strain suffered Feb. 3. He delivered 36 points on 12-of-29 shooting with 9 assists across 34 minutes before sitting out overtime when he hit his minutes limit. His presence alone turned a mid-February game into an event.
“It was fun. It was good out there,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “End-of-season basketball is like that. It’s that chippy, that physical, so it was good to get one of those in the regular season.”
These two teams met in a seven-game Western Conference semifinals series last season, so there’s certainly tension between them. Friday confirmed there’s nothing friendly left between these franchises, and the stretch run is only going to make it messier.
