{"id":505203,"date":"2025-12-30T11:05:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/505203\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T11:05:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T11:05:23","slug":"jordan-clarkson-defends-suspended-pelicans-guard-brawling-with-suns-center-did-what-was-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/505203\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Clarkson defends suspended Pelicans guard brawling with Suns center: \u2018Did what was right\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Connecting punches and fights are rare in the NBA these days, but New Orleans point guard Jose Alvarado, a Brooklyn product, hit Phoenix\u2019s Mark Williams with a haymaker <\/a>over the weekend and Jordan Clarkson applauded the reaction.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, center left, and Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams, center right, get into a scrum during the third quarter before both were ejected during an NBA basketball game in New Orleans, AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like that\u2019s [Alvarado\u2019s] MO. Small guy, guys try to do that since he\u2019s been in the league and he\u2019s always held his own, being aggressive,\u201d Clarkson said. \u201cHe\u2019s made his mark in this league and I think that doesn\u2019t \u2014 I don\u2019t think he would have reacted any other way. I think he did what was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams lightly pushed Alvarado in the third quarter of Saturday\u2019s 123-114 victory for the Suns. Alvarado then turned around and got tangled up with Williams, who swung first at the much smaller opponent but missed. Alvarado countered with a right hand windup and contact with Williams\u2019 head.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Williams was suspended one game. Alvarado was suspended two games, including Monday\u2019s showdown against the Knicks.<\/p>\n

\"Knicks<\/p>\n

Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson (00) dribbling against the Atlanta Hawks. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

The fight occurred in the second game of back-to-back between the Suns and Pelicans, a miniseries that had already included some tense moments<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a lot of built-up tension,\u201d Mikal Bridges said. \u201cThat\u2019s what happens when you put those two games for like a mini playoff series. I know both of those guys. So it was crazy. They got a little couple-game rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Jose [against us] so that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Connecting punches and fights are rare in the NBA these days, but New Orleans point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[208,7,670,2131,11053,304,1011,1260,6,478,470,4073,4072,675,472],"class_list":{"0":"post-505203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-jordan-clarkson","12":"tag-jose-alvarado","13":"tag-knicks","14":"tag-mark-williams","15":"tag-mikal-bridges","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-new-orleans","18":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","19":"tag-neworleans","20":"tag-neworleanspelicans","21":"tag-pelicans","22":"tag-phoenix-suns"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115808195337204911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505203","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=505203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}