Nikola Jokic, More Deny Leaving Bench During Derrick Favors-Mason Plumlee Fight

Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone said he doesn't expect suspensions for starters Nikola Jokic, Gary Harris or Jamal Murray for leaving the bench area during a scuffle between Nuggets center Mason Plumlee and Utah Jazz power forward Derrick Favors on Wednesday night.

Malone, who said it was "unfortunate that incident escalated the way it did," noted he believed his staff kept their players who weren't on the floor out of potential trouble from the NBA, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com.

"I think our assistant coaches made sure that nobody was on the court," he said. "I have no doubts that our guys stayed where they were supposed to stay."

Jokic added: "I was not on the court. I mean, I cannot step? I was not even close. If they're going to fine me, they're going to fine me, but I did not do nothing."

Jokic came closest to the fracas, which occurred on the baseline near the Denver bench, but he never became directly involved in the incident.

Order was restored quickly as the coaches from both sides came over to break things up.

Harris said everyone's "natural reaction" is to get involved but felt his actions were limited, per MacMahon:

"I didn't do anything. I took a couple of steps. I mean, it's natural. The fans took a couple of steps. You see [something] like that going on, you obviously want to step up for your teammates. Obviously, it got pretty physical out there, so it was just a natural reaction to [want to] step in there and try to do something. But the guys on the court did a good job of breaking it up."

Favors, Plumlee, the Jazz's Royce O'Neale and the Nuggets' Will Barton all received technical fouls following the first-quarter disturbance.

There were no other major incidents during the contest as Utah picked up a 114-108 win.

Denver now awaits word on potential punishments, which could include $50,000 fines in addition to the possible one-game bans, ahead of its game against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night.