The NBA has fined Nikola Jokić $50,000 and Julius Randle $35,000 for their roles in the scuffle that broke out at the end of Game 4 between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, the league unveiled on Sunday.
The altercation took place with 1.3 seconds left in Minnesota’s 112-96 win on Saturday. Before that, Wolves guard Mike Conley had grabbed a rebound and passed the ball to Jaden McDaniels. The win was already in the bag, but McDaniels made a layup instead of dribbling out the clock. Jokić felt that McDaniels had violated an unwritten role, so he ran down the court and got in McDaniels’ face.
McDaniels grabbed Jokić’s jersey, and players, coaches and officials swarmed the two players. Most were trying to defuse the situation, but the NBA determined that Randle “escalated the incident by forcefully inserting himself into the scrum and shoving” Denver’s Bruce Brown. In the moment, Jokić and Randle were given technical fouls and ejected.
Jokić told reporters that he was upset because McDaniels “scored when everybody stopped playing.” McDaniels told reporters that he was unsure what Jokić stated to him while the two were going back and forth.
“I don’t know what he stated, to be honest, I just saw someone that was big as hell [coming toward me],” McDaniels stated.
Nuggets coach David Adelman also took exception to McDaniels’ shot.
“I didn’t like what McDaniels did,” Adelman told reporters. “The game was over…in 2026 that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore, that’s something that happens in the ’80s where teams would continue to score, but that’s who he is.”
The Wolves forward, who previously ruffled some of the Nuggets’ feathers for calling out their “bad defenders,” explained his thought process simply: “The clock still be running, so I’m about to go score.”
Ahead of Game 5 on Monday, in which Minnesota will be without Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo due to injury, the good news (for both teams) is that no one got suspended as a result of this kerfuffle. Down 3-1 in the series, the Nuggets will be fighting — figuratively! — for their lives.
