Miami Heat have made it to the NBA Finals for the eighth time while Denver Nuggets have got there for the first time in their history this season. With one franchise from the East and the other from the West they have played each other just twice this season and three times since November 8, 2021. The three matches that have been played between the two sides ended amicably, something that can hardly be said about the game on that date.
The dramatic match happened in Denver, which is the venue for the first two games of the Finals series starting tomorrow. It was a regular league match of the 2021/22 season, and Denver were running away with it in the fourth quarter, when star player and then-reigning MVP Nikola Jokic was incensed by Heat’s Markieff Morris for unnecessarily cracking him in the ribs on a hard take foul. Jokic responded by taking three full steps to build up speed and smashing into Morris’ back in retaliation. Morris wasn’t looking and his head snapped back as he fell to the floor of the the Denver court. He immediately clutched his forehead, and a stretcher was summoned. He would go on to miss 59 games recovering from whiplash.
That sparked a melee involving players from both sides. A furious Jimmy Butler then asked Denver’s players to “bring that s— to the back”, challenging them to settle their differences, or rather continue the fight, in the tunnel after the game. This led to the now infamous picture of Heat players waiting outside Denver’s locker room due to the in-game altercation. Jokic and Morris were both ejected while Jokic was later suspended for one game following the incident at Denver’s Ball Arena.
The incident made its ripples on social media with Morris’ brother Marcus Morris and Jokic’s brothers getting into a verbal altercation on Twitter. Jokic was fined $25,000 for “forcefully shoving” Morris. For essentially starting the ruckus, Morris was also ejected from the game and was given a $50,000 fine. Butler was also fined $30,000 for “attempting to escalate the altercation.”
No beef with Denver, says Butler
Butler moved to draw a line under the controversy on Wednesday when talking to reporters on the eve of Miami’s clash with Denver in game one of the finals. “There’s a lot of stuff about the whole situation that people don’t understand, and I’ll let that stay back there,” Butler said. “I don’t think it has too much to do with anything, this thing in the past. It’s high-level competition.” Butler clarified that his angry on-court tirade during that 2021 game was not directed at Jokic. “I will say I wasn’t talking to Jokic,” said Butler. “That wasn’t my beef. Make sure you write that. The individual who I was talking to definitely knew who I was talking to.”
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