March 10, 2026, 6:00 p.m. CT
I’ve always said NBA fans love the drama as much as they love the actual basketball — if not more. Look no further at how bloodthirsty folks were at hoping for another brawl to break out between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets just a little over a week since their last matchup.
Aside from this being a heavyweight bout between title contenders, social media wanted to see if Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets would serve some vigilante justice on Lu Dort. As most know, Dort was ejected in OKC’s drama-filled 127-121 overtime win over Denver on Feb. 27.
On a routine inbounds play, Dort tripped Jokic. The three-time MVP winner immediately turned into The Incredible Hulk. Seeing red, he went after the OKC starter over the trip. After being separated, the referees handed Dort a flagrant foul two. He was kicked out of the game.
Afterward, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault came to bat for Dort. He said that if tripping someone mets the criteria for a flagrant foul two, that’s what he’ll expect the rest of the way.
“I don’t think anybody’s trying to hurt anybody. They’re just great competitors. That’s what I thought. They just boiled over. I think it was nothing more than that. I will say this — if J-Will is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant two from this point forward,” Daigneault said. “That’s the precedent. If that becomes a malicious play, and flagrant two is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that.”
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Later on, Dort issued an apology. He admitted he crossed a line in that instance. The Nuggets seemed pretty indifferent about it. Before the Thunder picked up a surprising 129-126 win, Daigneault also issued his own apology. As he walked back his comments from just 10 days prior.
“You never know going into a game what the game’s going to be like. We’ve played these guys 14 times, I think it’s the 14th time we’ve played in two years. All those games have been different,” Daigneault said. “They’ve been refereed differently and played differently, so I never go into a game anticipating anything. I do know Lu acknowledged that the play was unnecessary.”
This was Daigneault’s way of extinguishing any avoidable distractions that go beyond basketball. The Thunder have never been the type to make a circus out of the game. A business-first approach has helped them quickly ascend from a rebuild to an NBA champion.
“Lu acknowledged that the play was unnecessary. I don’t think my comments about Lu helped after the game. The timing of them was insensitive,” Daigneault said. “I was in the mode of protecting my team. It was just ill-timed.”
For the most part, cooler heads prevailed. The Thunder and Nuggets went on to have another classic must-watch TV game that ended with Gilgeous-Alexander making NBA history and hitting a game-winner. While Dort committed another flagrant foul as he smacked Jokic’s face going over a screen, both sides acknowledged afterward that there wasn’t anything malicious about it.
The Thunder and Nuggets have grown to be one of the NBA’s best rivalries over the last three seasons. Expect that to continue the rest of the way. That’s what happens when you have the league’s best two players in their prime under the same division and conference.