Jan. 28, 2026, 9:01 a.m. CT
Refusing to gift an easy layup, Lu Dort made sure Jeremiah Fears didn’t break one of basketball’s unwritten rules. Soon, things escalated. As the final buzzer sounded, the former shoved the latter. Then there was some jersey grabbing.
Dort and Fears were separated by their teams. The aftermath had dozens of folks forming a circle on the court. Fears had to be dragged into the visitor’s tunnel. Dort eventually cooled off and celebrated with his teammates.
The Oklahoma City Thunder collected a badly-needed 104-95 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. There were some late flares between the two squads in the final moments that eventually boiled over to what happened after the game ended.
The postgame fireworks went viral on social media. Here’s what the Thunder said happened:
Mark Daigneault:
“Two things on that. The first one is I thought, good guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes. That altercation at the end started well before that with the Bey-J-Will situation. I thought they could have managed that cleaner. And the second thing is, I think that’s a foul on Dort. If it was, they should put a whistle on that play, regardless of the score and the time. Because if they do that, everybody stops playing. You can legislate the situation as you normally would. But because they didn’t put a whistle on it, it’s the end of the game. They can do nothing about it. You end up with that situation.”
Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
“I wasn’t too sure what happened. I had heard them going back and forth after I made the last two free throws. I wasn’t sure what happened. And then I turned around and they were face-to-face. I’m sure it wasn’t anything crazy, though, typical basketball scuffle.”
Isaiah Joe
“It’s just two teams wanting to win a basketball game. It’s competitive out there.”
Jaylin Williams
“Just competing. Two guys competing, playing basketball. That’s it.”