Punishment was handed down to Nikola Jokic for his end of game scuffle with Jaden McDaniels.
The Denver Nuggets lost game four against the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first round series, putting them in a 3-1 series hole.
The end of the game came with plenty of theatrics as the two sides got involved in a scuffle after Nikola Jokic took exception to a play made by Jaden McDaniels.
With the Timberwolves up 110-96, Jamal Murray missed a three with ten seconds remaining and the shot clock turned off. Mike Conley got the rebound, and tossed the ball down to McDaniels, who laid the ball in.
Jokic ran down the court and confronted McDaniels, leading to a lot of pushing, shoving, and talking.
Julius Randle could be seen knocking arms and hands away as players, coaches, and officials tried to intervene and separate everyone.
Jokic and Randle were ejected for their actions.
NBA Issues Fines
On Sunday evening, the NBA issued two fines for the scuffle. Nikola Jokic was fined $50,000, while Julius Randle was fined $35,000.
No suspensions were handed out.
The NBA stated that Jokic “initiated the incident by confronting and shoving” McDaniels in reaction to his play, while Randle “escalated the incident by forcefully inserting himself into the scrum and shoving Nuggets guard-forward Bruce Brown.”
Aaron Gordon, Jonas Valanciunas, Rudy Gobert and Bones Hyland were not checked into the game and left their respective benches during the scuffle, but the NBA deemed that their actions and involvement were not worthy of a suspension.
League rules now take into account how far a player ventures from the bench and whether they entered the immediate proximity of the altercation. The rule was altered after Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw of the Phoenix Suns were suspended in 2007 for Game 5 of a 2-2 series after leaving the bench once they saw Steve Nash knocked down by Robert Horry.
What's Next?
With the fines out of the way, Jokic, Randle, and McDaniels will all be on the court again on Monday when they play game five in Denver.
It's a must win for the Nuggets as they are down in the series 3-1, and a loss would send them home much earlier than anyone would have expected.
Jokic will have to let the "unwritten rules" go and focus on the task at hand, which is figuring out a way to solve the Timberwolves defense that has held Denver's offense to under 100 points in the last two games.
As he's done all series, McDaniels will continue to try and get under the skin of Jokic and the rest of Denver.