The Thunder beat the Pelicans 104-95 tonight in a scrappy win at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma. Two brawls broke out in the last two minutes of the game as the Thunder pulled away down the stretch.
Following the game, the Thunder’s head coach, Mark Daigneault, spoke to the media during the press conference and addressed what he believed caused the fights to go out of hand.
“Good guys. Good crew. But I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes. I thought that altercation at the end started well before that with the Bey and J-Will situation. I thought they could’ve managed that cleaner,” said Daigneault.
“And then the second thing is, I think that’s a foul on Dort. And if it was, they should put a whistle on that play regardless of the score and the time. If they do that, everybody stops playing, and you can legislate the situation as you normally would,” he further added.
The first fight was between Jaylin Williams and Saddiq Bey, with less than two minutes left on the clock on an inbound play in the fourth quarter. Williams began shoving Bey after he took exception to his physical defense.
Saddiq Bey and Jaylin Williams with some extracirricular activities pic.twitter.com/kHAQn8LS33
— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) January 28, 2026
Bey did not hold back and went right up to Williams’ face before the duo was separated. The officials assessed a double technical foul, and play moved on.
Subsequently, the second brawl broke out between Lu Dort and Jeremiah Fears just seconds after the final whistle. Fears took exception to a foul from Dort on his drive to a layup when the game was essentially decided, as the clock counted down the final seconds on that play.
Lu Dort and Jeremiah Fears got into it on the final play of the game 😳 pic.twitter.com/pd57nEKb5f
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 28, 2026
The Pelicans guard said something to the Thunder’s swingman, which triggered him into grabbing the rookie guard’s jersey collar before Saddiq Bey and Zion Williamson intervened. Both benches eventually swarmed under the Pelicans’ basket as a major fight broke out.
In a video that surfaced on social media, Fears can be seen being held back and taken to the locker room. He reportedly wanted to throw hands as tempers flared on both sides, where even the arena security team was forced to intervene.
Still holding Fears after the game. pic.twitter.com/AzL7FLwaGS
— Jerry Ramsey (@TVsJerry) January 28, 2026
Daigneault believes that if the officials had taken action more swiftly, then such fights could have been avoided in the first place. The Thunder improved to 38-10 after the win tonight.
They avoided a three-game losing streak after losing consecutive games against the Pacers and the Raptors. The defending champions now head to Minnesota to face the Timberwolves on Thursday, January 29.
Meanwhile, the Pelicans fell to 12-37 at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. They now head home to host the Grizzlies in their next game on Friday, January 30.
