{"id":29559,"date":"2025-05-13T10:13:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T10:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/29559\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T10:13:25","slug":"could-michael-porter-jr-be-suspended-after-james-harden-aaron-gordon-spat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/29559\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Michael Porter Jr. be suspended after James Harden-Aaron Gordon spat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 In a parallel universe, Aaron Gordon wasn\u2019t in the right place at the right time to dunk Nikola Jokic\u2019s airball at the buzzer<\/a>, because he wasn\u2019t on the court at all.<\/p>\n

For a moment Saturday, he flirted with an ejection by confronting James Harden during a donnybrook between the Nuggets and Clippers late in the first half of Game 4 at Intuit Dome. Gordon\u2019s hand even made inadvertent contact with the face of Clippers guard Norman Powell in the fray. Fortunately for all involved, including the live audience that was in for an instant classic, nobody was disqualified for either team.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at all the angles, we felt everyone involved had an equitable role in the altercation,\u201d officiating crew chief Zach Zarba said in a pool report interview. \u201cDue to that, they were all given equitable penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

More specifically: Six offsetting technical fouls, three to each team. Gordon, Christian Braun and Nikola Jokic picked up techs for Denver. Harden, Powell and Kris Dunn did for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they handled it the right way,\u201d Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think there was anything extracurricular after the fact that you could say was dangerous, and I thought both teams were just going at it, trying to win a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

It all started when Braun intentionally reached in on Harden, as he often does when the Nuggets have a foul to give at the end of the half. Harden disapproved of Braun\u2019s aggression. The veteran point guard got in Braun\u2019s face, and their private conversation escalated quickly when Jokic and Gordon smelled trouble. They both raced over, trying to provide reinforcements for an incredulous Braun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a take foul at the end of the half. Something that we always do. I think he was just a little frustrated with how I took the foul,\u201d Braun said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s basketball. It\u2019s good for the sport. It\u2019s fun. It made the game more fun. I think they rallied behind it. I think we did, too. The response from both teams made the game really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Harden) was just kind of getting a little bit chippy with CB,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cI think CB was doing a good job pressuring him. And I can\u2019t let nobody step to my young fella, so I was just running in giving backup. This is what playoff basketball is about. You see these teams every day, or every other day. You play them so many times consecutively, it\u2019s bound to get chippy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden swiped at Gordon\u2019s face, prompting Gordon to chase after Harden, seemingly willing and ready to take a swing or two of his own. Both players were ultimately held back \u2014 in Gordon\u2019s case, by Clippers center Ivica Zubac.<\/p>\n

The closest thing to a successful punch was Harden\u2019s open-handed jab. The next-closest thing was Gordon on Powell, though Powell seemed to move into Gordon\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cA closed-fist attempt to punch someone, whether that makes contact or not, would definitely fall under an ejectable offense,\u201d Zarba said, confirming that the referees saw no such example while reviewing the brouhaha.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of people in that scuffle,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cYou can define whatever you want to define with \u2018open hand,\u2019 all that stuff. .. I don\u2019t think Aaron has a reputation of being that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

But ironically, if the rulebook is to be interpreted strictly, the individual most likely to face punishment from the league after further examination will be Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. \u2014 one of the only players who wasn\u2019t involved in the incident.<\/p>\n

Porter was on Denver\u2019s bench at the time, and he briefly strayed onto the court before getting pulled back. According to the rulebook, \u201call players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench,\u201d and \u201cviolators will be subject to suspension, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $50,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter never got close to the fight. But he did leave the bench. His Game 5 fate might be decided by the league\u2019s discretion or lack thereof regarding the definition of \u201cimmediate vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a historical parallel from NBA Playoffs history from back in 2007. The Phoenix Suns were seconds away from beating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series when Robert Horry pushed Steve Nash into the scorer\u2019s table. Phoenix\u2019s Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire temporarily strayed from the bench in the ensuing scuffle, but did not engage. Regardless, both were suspended for Game 5 of that series.<\/p>\n

Of course, that was under a different commissioner (David Stern) and was just a couple of years removed from the most infamous fight in NBA history (the Palace brawl).<\/p>\n

Porter delivered a gutsy performance in Denver\u2019s Game 4 win<\/a>, scoring 17 points with a sprained shoulder. He apologized afterward for wandering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know the specific rule. I didn\u2019t make it very far,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what a team is for. That\u2019s what the coaches are for, to pull you back. It\u2019s an intense game, an intense moment. I\u2019d had a double foul with Powell earlier. And then to see my guys get in it like that, I\u2019m just glad I didn\u2019t make it very far and that the coaches and my teammates were aware.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harden has been guarding Gordon for most of this series, so they\u2019re seeing plenty of each other. When they took their positions for the first possession out of halftime, they could be seen having a friendly chat \u2014 indicative of both teams\u2019 overall attitude about the dust-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what we want. This is what we\u2019re about. This is what we work for,\u201d Powell said. \u201cTight, intense playoff series. No team willing to give an inch. No team willing to back down. So it\u2019s gonna get chippy. We\u2019re gonna fight. We\u2019ve got guys that like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: April 26, 2025 at 11:13 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. \u2014 In a parallel universe, Aaron Gordon wasn\u2019t in the right place at the right time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[877,7,561,559,765,250,301,187,766,560,4034,192,4032,165,251,135,4033,4031,764,252,6,11,253,302,66,9312],"class_list":{"0":"post-29559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-david-adelman","14":"tag-denver","15":"tag-denver-nuggets","16":"tag-front-range","17":"tag-james-harden","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-clippers","20":"tag-laclippers","21":"tag-latest-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-losangelesclippers","26":"tag-michael-porter","27":"tag-more-nuggets-news","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nba-playoffs","30":"tag-nikola-jokic","31":"tag-nuggets","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-video-assistant-referee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114499997350289539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}