The Denver Nuggets suffered a brutal overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday after leading well early on in the game, but possibly the most headline-grabbing event to come out of the game was the altercation between Nikola Jokic and Lu Dort around the eight minute mark of the fourth quarter.

During transition down the court, Dort seemingly tripped Jokic, sending the three-time MVP tumbling to the ground. Jokic immediately hopped hop and charged toward Dort, getting in his face before both teams mobbed to the center of the court. 

When the dust had settled, Dort was given a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected from the game while Jokic and the Thunder's Jaylin Williams were both hit with technical fouls for their roles in the scuffle on the court. 

While Jokic has a mild-tempered persona, he isn't completely beyond getting into it on the court, with the most notable being when he shoved Markieff Morris during a 2021 game after being fouled that resulted in a neck injury for Morris. 

Still, for Jokic to be as heated as he was against Dort is a shocking display from him, and Denver head coach David Adelman speculated that the way that the game was being called against Jokic had something to do with the Serbian star's growing frustration and eventual release. 

"I think his frustration sometimes because the games' officiated differently out on the floor than it is near the basket," Adelman said (via Nuggets). "I think he was reacting to what he was reacting to what was being done to him, and his reaction's not going to be to cower away. He's competitive." 

Adelman went to elaborate that he thinks that players get away with more physicality defending under the hoop against bigger players like Jokic than they would if it were happening elsewhere on the court, and that Jokic in particular seems to have to battle a bit more under the hoop than the average player without the benefit of a whistle. 

The center position is naturally a more laborious position on the court than others and with someone as dominant as Jokic, more intense physicality is sometimes what's needed to try and stop him.

The paradox of that is that is an expectation of defense for someone at his size and in his position, and something that at times can step outside of NBA;s regulation, whether or not referees notice it. On top of that, the Thunder are an incredibly physical team that have made that kind of hard contact a part of their game this season.

Another valid reason for Jokic's frustration to build up and boil over was the state of the game itself. The Nuggets jumped out to a 14 point lead after the first quarter and collapsed in on themselves more and more as the game went on until they were fully outshot in overtime and handed a loss against a tough conference rival. 

Adelman added that no matter the reason or situation, Jokic still needed to respond the "right way," but with the two teams facing off again in just five games, it remains to be seen if Jokic and the Nuggets will go into that game with wounds still raw, or with an extra fire lit inside of them.