Things got heated between the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks on Friday night. Specifically, Suns center Jusuf Nurkic and Mavs wing Naji Marshall threw actual blows. Well, Nurkic’s was more of a slap, though it still far exceeded the standard of what we refer to as a “fight” in NBA parlance.
It happened after Nurkic was whistled for an offensive foul early in the third quarter. It wasn’t your typical offensive foul. Nurkic led with his elbow into the face area of Daniel Gafford, and Marshall wasn’t about to let that fly. The two came together, and Nurkic slapped Marshall in the head. Marshall fired back with a full-on punch, though he mostly missed Nurkic. P.J. Washington then shoved Nurkic to the ground as Marshall was quickly separated from the fracas by officials.
Nurkic, Marshall and Washington were all ejected from the game, and you have to imagine that fines and probably suspensions will be following for at least Nurkic and Marshall.
When all was said and done, Dallas was able to come out with a 98-89 victory despite the absence of Luka Doncic, who is going to be out at least a month after sustaining a calf strain in Dallas’ loss to Minnesota on Christmas.
