Thunder's Lu Dort Says Flagrant Foul on Nikola Jokic 'Went Over The Limit,' Denies Being 'Dirty'

After a hard foul against Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic that led to him being ejected, Oklahoma City Thunder's Lu Dort admitted that the play crossed the line.

"It was a physical game throughout the whole game," Dort told The Athletic's Joel Lorenzi. "Obviously, that was unnecessary contact that I shouldn't have done. I got the worst of it by getting thrown out the game. But yeah, it was a high-level game. I'm a competitor, so I compete."

He added that there are "limits" to how physical you can be, and he "went over the limit."

Dort, who has been labeled as a dirty player by many following the play, denied that description.

"I don't think I'm dirty," he said. "I can't control media. Media always wants to have some type of attention or anything. They want that buzz. I can't control that. I've been doing well with this organization for years now.
I'm happy with how I play and what I do with my teammates. I go out there, compete every night. So I'm gonna keep doing what I do on the court, and then let the media judge the way they want to judge."

During last Friday's matchup between the Nuggets and Thunder, Jokić was running up the court to get on offense when Dort appeared to intentionally step backwards and trip him, sparking a scuffle between the two sides.

Jokić called his reaction to the play "necessary."

"There is no such thing—I think there's not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor," Jokić said. "So, it was just an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction by me.

Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman called Dort's foul "malicious" and a "cheap shot."

"For Dort to take that shot — and then I guess it wasn't that big of a deal from their (the Thunder's) standpoint, how they looked at it — is ridiculous," he said.

While Dort admitted that he took things too far, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault called the flagrant 2 excessive after the game.

"I will say this: If [Jalen Williams] is running up the floor and gets tripped, we expect a flagrant 2 from this point forward. That's all," he said. "If that's the precedent, if that becomes a malicious play and flagrant 2 is the line in the sand on that, we would expect that if it's [Williams]. We would expect that if it's anybody. And if that's the case, we're good."

Dort added that members of the Nuggets were justified in being upset over the play.

"They were right," Dort said. "That was an unnecessary move by me, something I shouldn't have done."

It's no secret that a bit of a rivalry has formed between the Thunder and Nuggets in recent years, especially since the two are some of the best teams in basketball. The incident last week will only intensify that rivalry.

OKC and Denver will meet two more times during the regular season, and it wouldn't be surprising if they matched up in the playoffs as well.