OKLAHOMA CITY – The temperature of one of the NBA’s most heated rivalries got turned up a couple of notches Friday at Paycom Center.

 Things reached a boiling point with eight minutes left in regulation after Jared McCain gave the hosts a two-point lead. Thunder guard Lu Dort obstructed Nikola Jokic’s route down the court and bumped the big man to the hardwood.

“It’s an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,” Jokic said after Denver’s 127-121 overtime loss. “I think there’s not supposed to be those things in a basketball game.”

Jokic confronted Dort before Thunder center Jaylin Williams drew the three-time Most Valuable Player’s ire. Jokic declined to comment whether Williams did anything to escalate the situation.

“I need to rewatch what happened with Dort,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “They said that the play looked malicious. I didn’t see it. Obviously, that’s how the officials saw it. Obviously, Nikola reacted to it. It was an emotional game. … We play against each other a lot.”

After a review, Dort was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul, while Jokic and Williams each received a technical foul.

“We 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,” crew chief James Williams said in a pool report.

Jokic was booed every time he touched the ball the rest of the night.

The fracas was hardly the only contentious moment. Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was assessed a technical foul for throwing the ball at Jokic less than three minutes into the game. Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. received a technical foul from the bench in the third quarter, arguing a sequence in which Jokic didn’t receive a foul call, while Isaiah Hartenstein was called for a Flagrant 1 foul on Jamal Murray in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Murray caught fire in overtime, finishing with a game-high 39 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists. Jokic needed 25 shots to score 23 points and completed another triple-double with 17 rebounds and 14 assists. Christian Braun (23) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (16) were the only other Nuggets to score in double figures.

Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 36 points, nine assists and three rebounds. Chet Holmgren led five other Thunder scorers in double figures with 15 points.

There’s not much time for cooler heads to prevail, as the Nuggets and Thunder meet again at Paycom Center on March 9. While Adelman needed to watch the contentious sequence again, he has a pretty good idea of what to expect when the Nuggets return to Oklahoma City.

“I think he was reacting to what was being done to him. His reaction is not going to be to cower away. He’s competitive,” Adelman said. “When we play them again, whenever it is in 10 days, I’m sure it will be the exact same way.”

THUNDER 127, NUGGETS 121, OT

What happened: Oklahoma City cut a 14-point deficit after the first quarter to a 59-50 Nuggets lead at halftime. Denver maintained a six-point lead to start the fourth, survived an Alex Caruso shot at the fourth-quarter buzzer but didn’t have the same luck in overtime.

What went right: The Nuggets started 7 of 11 from 3-point range, while the Thunder made just one of their first eight attempts from deep in the first quarter.

What went wrong: Denver committed 18 turnovers, leading to Oklahoma City’s 21-10 advantage in points off turnovers.

Up next: Denver’s demanding week concludes with Sunday’s matinee against Minnesota at Ball Arena.