In the waning moments of last night’s Wizards-Nuggets game, an odd sequence occurred after a made jump shot by Denver’s Jamal Murray with 32.2 seconds left. As the Wizards called timeout, Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic walked off the court and bumped into Wizards coach Scott Brooks.
* Recap: Wizards 109, Nuggets 104
That set off a small exchange of words between a couple of players on both teams and, eventually, a technical foul on Jokic for the hit. After the game, Wizards players John Wall and Marcin Gortat had thoughts on the hit, which was said to be done “intentionally” by crew chief Derrick Stafford.
Candace Buckner of The Washington Post has more:
John Wall described Denver center Nikola Jokic’s shoulder bump to Scott Brooks as a no-no.
Marcin Gortat called it disrespectful.
Brooks thought it was unusual. However, the officials ruled the contact as deliberate, and the end of the Washington Wizards’ 109-104 win on Monday night turned into a contentious and strange moment between the young talented big man and the veteran coach.
“That’s something you don’t do,” Wall said. “No matter what’s going on between players and teammates. That’s something you don’t do to a coach. That’s like me calling a coach a certain name. Hopefully he apologizes to (Brooks) but luckily we got the win.”
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The contact spun Brooks around, and he immediately complained to the nearest referee. Jokic was assessed a technical foul and Beal hit the free throw. Then on the next possession with 12 seconds to play, Beal scored on a driving layup, effectively ending Denver’s chances.
“I’m sorry because I put my team in a bad position,” Jokic said. “I tried to look at the score, and I hit the coach.”
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“It was an awkward, weird situation,” Brooks said. “I don’t think he did it on purpose but it happened. I moved on and the referee had to do what he had to do and move on. But I never had that happen before.”
Although Denver Coach Mike Malone stood up for his player by expressing how he felt Brooks had “embellished” the contact, the officials’ crew chief, Derrick Stafford, spoke to a pool reporter following the game and explained that Jokic received the technical foul because “he intentionally walked into Scotty Brooks on his way to the bench.”
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“He’s not allowed to do that. Whatever it was, he didn’t see it or he (saw) it and he didn’t move away. He can’t do that. He can’t do that,” Gortat said. “This is lack of respect for the game. Lack of respect for our coach, lack of respect for the older person … he’s just not allowed to do that, bottom line. This was (the) end of the game, and he just hurt his team pretty much doing that but it’s okay. It’s not our problem.”
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