Some fireworks went off after an otherwise standard win for the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Following the final whistle in a 104-95 victory over the Pelicans on Tuesday, Thunder wing Luguentz Dort and New Orleans guard Jeremiah Fears got into a shoving match and had to be separated by officials and teammates.
With the Thunder down nine in the closing seconds, the rookie Pelicans guard opted to test his luck down low for a couple more points while being guarded by Dort.
After Fears went up for the layup and was ultimately stopped, Dort decided to shove the freshman and the two immediately stared each other down and got tangled up, with both benches clearing into a huge scrum as the final buzzer sounded.
The guard, who sports the No. 0, stayed true to his colours, displaying no fear going after Dort — a Montreal native and one of the NBA's more intimidating enforcers. Still in a state after heading back into the tunnel, Pelicans staffers had to keep holding onto Fears as they returned to the locker room.
The two sides had gotten physical as the game played out in the final minutes, and Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault addressed it in his post-game press conference.
"Good guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes," Daigneault said to reporters. "I thought that altercation at the end started well before that with the (Pelicans wing Saddiq) Bey, J-Will (Thunder forward Jaylin Williams) situation. I thought they could've managed that cleaner."
Daigneault was referring to another scuffle with just over a minute to go between Williams and Bey, as the two forwards got physical on an inbound play and began jawing at each other before being separated by teammates.
"I saw two teams that are competing against each other," Williams said of the incidents at the end of the game to Andrew Schlecht of The Athletic. "You play a game and guys are bumping, you're fouling, you're doing things like that ... It's two teams that wanna compete at the highest level. Of course, tempers are gonna get high. That's all it is, just two teams that wanna play. Play hard and it gets to that ... and outside of it, it's nothing more than what it was on the court."
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