Suns owner sells a flop if Phoenix Evens series with Denver
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was fined $25,000 Monday, but not suspended, for making contact with Suns owner Mat Ishbia while attempting to snatch a ball away from him in a Sunday court scuffle .
Jokic had scored a career-high 53 points in the Nuggets’ 129–124 loss to the Suns in Phoenix in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series. But all the post-match chatter was about his confrontation with Ishbia and the owner’s apparent flop on ensuing contact.
With two and a half minutes left in the second quarter, momentum carried the Suns’ Josh Okogie and the ball to the front row. Okogie was sprawled over some fans as the ball landed in Ishbia’s hands.
Jokic tried to grab the ball, hoping to quickly resume play with a five-to-four lead. Ishbia resisted and the ball bounced off to some other fans a few feet away.
Jokic’s forearm then made contact with Ishbia, who, perhaps recalling his days as a player on the end of the bench at Michigan State, seemed to have a hard sell on the contact, threw his hands in the air and fell to his seat.
Jokic received a technical foul.
“Jokic came to get the ball, took it away from the fan, then deliberately shoved it and pushed it down, so he got an unsportsmanlike technical foul,” said Tony Brothers, the match’s head referee. said after the game.
Brothers said Jokic wasn’t ejected because “he didn’t just pull over and hit a fan; there was some involvement, so I thought the technical foul was the appropriate penalty.
The Suns won the game to tie the best-of-seven series with two games in total.
“The fan put a hand on me first”, Jokic said after the game. “I thought the league was supposed to protect us. Maybe I’m wrong.”
“He’s a fan – I know who he is, but he’s a fan, isn’t he?” Jokic added, acknowledging that he knew he was confused with Ishbia. “He can’t influence the game by holding the ball.”
Ishbia seemed ready to put the incident behind her on Twitter Monday morning“To suspend or fine someone for last night’s incident would not be right,” he wrote. “I have a lot of respect for Jokic and don’t want to see something like that.”
The Nuggets were eager to do the same. “I think it’s strange that Nikola got a technical foul in that situation”, coach said Michael Malone. “He’s going to get the ball and a fan is holding the ball like he wants to be part of the game. Just give the ball up, man.
He revealed that the fan was Ishbia and said, “I really don’t care.”
The incident barely slowed Jokic, whose 53 points came on 20-of-30 shooting. He also had 11 assists.
Jokic won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2021 and 2022 and finished runner-up to Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers this season. But in his eight years with Denver, the team has made just one trip to the conference finals and failed to make the NBA finals. As the No. 1 seed in the West this season, hopes are high in Denver that this will change. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Denver, with Game 6 on Thursday and Game 7, if needed, on Sunday.