The Thunder beat up Jusuf Nurkic and HE’S the one who got ejected

We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.

Thunder vs. Blazers was a hoot, finishing with an Oklahoma City victory in overtime, giving the visitors a season sweep over Portland. The game was really won at the end of regulation when Jusuf Nurkic, the second-best Blazer and a crucial combatant against OKC, got ejected. And Nurkic wouldn’t have gotten ejected at the end of regulation if he hadn’t been body-checked by Russell Westbrook earlier in the game.

Let me explain.

First of all, these dudes have real beef. Westbrook called Nurkic a clown earlier this season, which led to the Bosnian Beast referring to his foe as “Westbrick” on Twitter. Uh oh.

In the second quarter on Thursday, Westbrook smashed into Nurkic as the players switched ends of the court behind the play, knocking the big man to the ground. Refs whistled the obvious foul and reviewed the play to determine whether to assess a flagrant foul on Westbrook. They did. But when reviewing the full play, they noticed that Nurkic intentionally tripped Westbrook near the baseline, before the cross-check. They assessed Nurkic a technical foul for that.

That would never have been seen, reviewed, or called without Westbrook picking up the flagrant.

The rest of the game was chippy -- Paul George, probably inadvertently, hit Nurkic with a tough elbow that went uncalled -- on one drive.

With less than five seconds left in regulation, Nurkic grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled with the Blazers down two. George said something to him, and Nurkic went chest to chest and headbutted George, though not very hard. Refs reviewed it and assessed the dreaded double technicals.

Being Nurkic’s second and George’s first (because the elbow was never caught but Nurk’s trip was), Nurkic got ejected. The Blazers were still able to send the game to overtime, but the Thunder dominated there, in part by attacking Enes Kanter, who had to play in place of the much more defensively stout Nurk. In the end, Nurkic did far less damage in his two violations than either Westbrook or George did in their shoulder smash and elbow, respectively. But this is how it goes sometimes, especially for imposing big men.

So there you go. The Thunder won a big game in part because Westbrook jacked Nurkic in plain sight in the second quarter.

Scores

Pacers 98, Bucks 117
Thunder 129, Blazers 121 (OT)

Schedule

Here’s the national TV lineup for this weekend. All times Eastern. Full schedule can be found here.

Friday:
Sixers at Rockets, 8, ESPN
Nuggets at Warriors, 10:30, ESPN

Saturday:
Celtics at Lakers, 8:30, ABC

Sunday:
Pacers at Sixers, 3:30, ABC
Pelicans at Hawks, 6, NBA TV
Suns at Warriors, 8:30, NBA TV

Links

How very tall and long basketball players find clothes that fit. Nice investigation by Matt Ellentuck.

Examining Giannis Antetokounmpo’s unique defensive game.

Otto Porter missed the end of a 1-point game because of a drug test.

Can DeMarcus Cousins do less? (In my experience, the answer is no. This is likely asking a Finnish black metal band to play a John Mayer song. It’s just not possible.)

Sam Amick is convincing me that the Bucks could win the title.

Why LeBron passing MJ on the all-time scoring list was pretty anticlimatic.

Wait, there is a fourth Ball, but he’s a cousin and he’s pursuing a more normal ball to the pros?

Brian Windhorst on Adam Silver’s forthright comments, especially on the impact of shorter contracts.

Now that the Lakers’ playoff dreams are basically done, LeBron will be on minutes restrictions and won’t play back-to-backs.

LITTY Committee.

You are probably not watching Deandre Ayton’s big breakout. On a related note, the top five picks in the 2018 NBA Draft might make up the entire first team All Rookie. Perhaps one will get bumped to second team. That’s pretty impressive!

And finally: Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye mercilessly trolling LeBron over his big scoring achievement this week.

Be excellent to each other.