Tensions spilled over across the NBA on Tuesday night, with scuffles breaking out in two separate games.
The most heated moment came in Oklahoma City, where a late shove sparked a full-blown confrontation between the Thunder and Pelicans.
Thunder–Pelicans boil over at the buzzer
The Thunder had the game wrapped up in a 104–95 win over New Orleans, but there was still time for late drama. With time expiring, Jeremiah Fears drove toward the basket for a layup when Lu Dort made contact from behind.
Dort shoved Fears, and the two immediately squared up as players and coaches poured in from both benches to pull them apart.
The altercation earned multiple technical fouls and sparked an otherwise routine finish to life.
Afterward, Fears didn’t hold back. He summed up his view of the incident in a blunt Instagram comment, calling Dort “soft.”
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault placed the blame squarely on the officials for letting the moment escalate.
“Good guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes,” Daigneault said.
“I thought that altercation at the end started well before that with the [Saddiq Bey and Jaylin Williams] situation. I thought they could have managed that cleaner.
“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, because if they do that, everybody stops playing and you can legislate the situation as you normally would.
“But because they didn’t put a whistle on it, it’s the end of the game, they can do nothing about it, and you end up with that situation.”
Suns–Nets follow with scrap
About an hour later, chaos broke out again, this time in Phoenix during the Suns’ 106–102 win over the Nets.
With under two minutes left in a tight game, Egor Dëmin shoved Dillon Brooks to the floor while battling for a loose ball. The shove ignited a scrum involving five players, as assistant coaches rushed in to keep things from escalating further.
The moment appeared to stem from previous contact, when Brooks shoved Dëmin earlier in the game and picked up a technical foul.
Officials handed out technicals to Dëmin, Terance Mann, and Michael Porter Jr. for Brooklyn, while Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neal received techs for Phoenix.
