Things didn’t go smoothly during last night’s clash between Oklahoma City and San Antonio, in which the Thunder eventually took home a 146-132 win. Late in the third quarter, a scuffle erupted that almost turned into a full-blown fight and subsequently saw three players ejected.
Resulting in three ejections, OKC‘s Jalen Williams joked around after the match. “We had an altercation?” said the 23-year-old during his postgame interview on the court with ESPN. “It made us refocus, figure out what’s important.”
After the incident, referees had no choice but to issue double technicals to Julian Champagne and Kenrich Williams, as well as Lu Dort and Jeremy Sochan. In total three players were ejected as a result, while Sochan escaped such punishment.
It all happened with three minutes left in the third quarter, when Kenrich was elbowed in the jaw as he was guarding a Champagnie who was simply passing the ball to teammate Stephon Castle. He then found Sochan under the rim, who delivered with a two-handed dunk. The two rivals who initiated this play, ended up shoving each other.
“When people are aggressive, there are a lot of coincidental elbows or contact. I don’t really know who was at fault, to be honest. But it just looked like that was what initiated it,” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “And then there was the response on both ends. [It] just looked like Kenrich Williams was being aggressive, and Julian was opening up. I don’t know if that’s an offensive foul now. I don’t know where that line is of what space you’re allowed.”
Everyone then entered the court to break up the scuffle, but things had escalated to the point that Dort and Sochan had taken ahold of each other in a scrum that involved at least 10 other players, including stars De’Aaron Fox and MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“I went for a dunk, and then all I see is just everyone going to one spot,” Sochan explained after the game. “So, like I had to go to the same spot. It was a little scuffle. I think it was pretty playful. It wasn’t anything too serious. Yeah, it kind of evolved. I had to react a little bit in the playful scuffle.”
