The Nuggets suffered a heartbreaking 121-127 loss to the Thunder on Friday night. David Adelman, Denver’s head coach, spoke to the media before the Timberwolves game tonight and addressed a major altercation that broke out during the Thunder fixture.
With a little over eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Lu Dort seemed to intentionally trip Nikola Jokic in transition, which led to a major fight breaking out during the game and the Thunder veteran being tossed from the game. Even 36 hours later, Adelman seemed upset about the incident.
Lu Dort was ejected after appearing to trip Nikola Jokic on this play.
Nikola Jokic and Jaylin Williams both received technical fouls. pic.twitter.com/ZFyNHpigsM
— ESPN (@espn) February 28, 2026
“Yeah, I think it is who he is. He’s been more of a measured person throughout the season. I mean, most people are more productive when they’re measured. But there’s a point where we play these games, and what he deals with nightly, anybody would react that way.”
“And then for Dort to take that shot, and then I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal from their standpoint, how they looked at it… is ridiculous. That was malicious. It was a cheap shot.”
“Lu Dort’s a great player, and that’s not what I’ve seen him do before. But at some point, you have to stand up for yourself, and the team does as well,” Adelman added.
“So they’re a great team. That game was what it was. But yeah, Nikola, that’s who he is, man. You can’t have the success that he’s had and not be that competitive. He has emotions inside of him that he keeps in check, but the guy is very capable of emotionally responding,” concluded Adelman.
The Thunder’s head coach, Mark Daigneault, was shown these comments from Adelman and also spoke about the incident before facing the Mavericks tonight. He clarifies that no malice was intended.
“I would echo and repeat what I’ve said every time we’ve played Denver for a long time, which is I have nothing but respect for [the Denver Nuggets]. We have nothing but respect for Denver.”
We have respect from top to bottom. We certainly have respect for [Nikola] Jokic, [Aaron] Gordon, [Jamal] Murray, just because those guys have endured together for so long and had so much success, but we have respect for their staff.”
I mentioned that last year, after the playoffs. As I said, I have nothing but the highest respect. I said it the other night, the teams make each other better. It is a great matchup because of that, and that’s all I’d say about it,” Daigneault said in response.
The two sides will face off again on March 9 and once in April before closing out the season. The Thunder are currently 2-0 up in their season series against the Nuggets.
Do you think Nikola Jokic will come back with a chip on his shoulder against Dort and the Thunder in their next game? He finished this game with 23 points, 17 rebounds, and 14 assists while shooting 9-25 from the field (36.0 FG%) and 2-10 from beyond the three-point line.
He certainly wasn’t happy after the game as well. I would certainly prepare some popcorn for the action-packed basketball we might witness when the two teams face off next week.
