INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In a parallel universe, Aaron Gordon wasn’t in the right place at the right time to dunk Nikola Jokic’s airball at the buzzer, because he wasn’t on the court at all.
For a moment Saturday, he flirted with an ejection by confronting James Harden during a donnybrook between the Nuggets and Clippers late in the first half of Game 4 at Intuit Dome. Gordon’s hand even made inadvertent contact with the face of Clippers guard Norman Powell in the fray. Fortunately for all involved, including the live audience that was in for an instant classic, nobody was disqualified for either team.
“Looking at all the angles, we felt everyone involved had an equitable role in the altercation,” officiating crew chief Zach Zarba said in a pool report interview. “Due to that, they were all given equitable penalties.”
More specifically: Six offsetting technical fouls, three to each team. Gordon, Christian Braun and Nikola Jokic picked up techs for Denver. Harden, Powell and Kris Dunn did for Los Angeles.
“I thought they handled it the right way,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “I didn’t think there was anything extracurricular after the fact that you could say was dangerous, and I thought both teams were just going at it, trying to win a game.”
It all started when Braun intentionally reached in on Harden, as he often does when the Nuggets have a foul to give at the end of the half. Harden disapproved of Braun’s aggression. The veteran point guard got in Braun’s face, and their private conversation escalated quickly when Jokic and Gordon smelled trouble. They both raced over, trying to provide reinforcements for an incredulous Braun.
“I took a take foul at the end of the half. Something that we always do. I think he was just a little frustrated with how I took the foul,” Braun said. “And that’s basketball. It’s good for the sport. It’s fun. It made the game more fun. I think they rallied behind it. I think we did, too. The response from both teams made the game really fun.”
“I think (Harden) was just kind of getting a little bit chippy with CB,” Gordon said. “I think CB was doing a good job pressuring him. And I can’t let nobody step to my young fella, so I was just running in giving backup. This is what playoff basketball is about. You see these teams every day, or every other day. You play them so many times consecutively, it’s bound to get chippy.”
Harden swiped at Gordon’s face, prompting Gordon to chase after Harden, seemingly willing and ready to take a swing of his own. Both players were ultimately held back.
The closest thing to a successful punch was Harden’s open-handed jab. The next-closest thing was Gordon on Powell, though Powell seemed to move into Gordon’s hand.
“A closed-fist attempt to punch someone, whether that makes contact or not, would definitely fall under an ejectable offense,” Zarba said, confirming that the referees saw no such example while reviewing the brouhaha.
“There were a lot of people in that scuffle,” Adelman said. “You can define whatever you want to define with ‘open hand,’ all that stuff. .. I don’t think Aaron has a reputation of being that person.”
But ironically, if the rulebook is to be interpreted strictly, the individual most likely to face punishment from the league after further examination will be Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. — one of the only players who wasn’t involved in the incident.
Porter was on Denver’s bench at the time, and he briefly strayed onto the court before getting pulled back. According to the rulebook, “all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench,” and “violators will be subject to suspension, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $50,000.”
Porter never got close to the fight. But he did leave the bench. His Game 5 fate might be decided by the league’s discretion or lack thereof regarding the definition of “immediate vicinity.”
There is a historical parallel from NBA Playoffs history from back in 2007. The Phoenix Suns were seconds away from beating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series when Robert Horry pushed Steve Nash into the scorer’s table. Phoenix’s Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire temporarily strayed from the bench in the ensuing scuffle, but did not engage. Regardless, both were suspended for Game 5 of that series.
Of course, that was under a different commissioner (David Stern) and was just a couple of years removed from the most infamous fight in NBA history (the Palace brawl).
Porter delivered a gutsy performance in Denver’s Game 4 win, scoring 17 points with a sprained shoulder. He apologized afterward for wandering.
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Harden has been guarding Gordon for most of this series, so they’re seeing plenty of each other. When they took their positions for the first possession out of halftime, they could be seen having a friendly chat — indicative of both teams’ overall attitude about the dust-up.
“This is what we want. This is what we’re about. This is what we work for,” Powell said. “Tight, intense playoff series. No team willing to give an inch. No team willing to back down. So it’s gonna get chippy. We’re gonna fight. We’ve got guys that like it.”
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