The Trail Blazers are upset about an elbow from Nuggets center Nikola Jokic in Friday’s four-overtime game that aggravated Enes Kanter‘s left shoulder injury, relays Royce Young of ESPN. Kanter said his shoulder was separated “more” during the game and blames a shot from Jokic that he posted on social media following the game (Twitter link).
Portland coach Terry Stotts addressed the situation today, saying it was “uncalled for” and he “certainly didn’t approve of it.” He isn’t sure if the NBA plans to review the play for possible disciplinary action against Jokic. Technical or flagrant fouls can be handed out retroactively, Young notes.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone defended his star center and disagreed with Stotts’ view of the incident.
“Normal play,” Malone said. “I think Terry is off base there. Personally, I don’t think it was anything malicious. Just like some of their screens in the first two games, I don’t think there was anything malicious to it — with Kanter getting tossed into Torrey Craig. This is the playoffs. We’re all big boys, let’s go out and play the game accordingly.
“I have known Nikola Jokic for four years. He doesn’t have that kind of personality, he doesn’t have that DNA gene where he’s going to go out there and make non-basketball plays and try to hurt anybody or do anything that is beyond the limits of what is sportsmanship and what is not sportsmanship. So I would definitely not agree with Terry’s assessment.”
Kanter separated his shoulder in the final game of the first-round series against the Thunder. Despite playing in pain, he logged 56 minutes last night and posted 18 points and 15 rebounds.
Kanter said after the game that he had to tuck his left arm in his jersey because he was unable to lift it. He received treatment from the team’s medical staff today and his status for tomorrow’s Game 4 remains uncertain.
Does anyone cry more than this Kanter guy Game 2..Denver fans are mean like no other fans say bad things. Game 3 The game was too physical..I could show 3 or 4 times in 4th O.T that a nuggets player got shoved to the floor and a foul wasnt called
I like how Mike Malone defends Jokic by bringing up ANOTHER dirty play by Jokic, when he pushed Kanter into Torrey Craig. “I’ve known Nikola Jokic for 4 years” while there’s a video circulating twitter of him trying to hurt Kanter. Thank god the Kings fired Mike Malone, DeMarcus Cousins would’ve murdered someone with a coach enabling him like that.
NBA can be so soft. It’s the playoffs!! All these teams need to play with more sandpaper or they’ll be watching basketball from the couch in Sacramento (13 years of couch reclining experience).
Common dude! Man up! It was nothing, look your Blazers have already way exceeded their expectations, so be happy that the best team/player is gonna win. Just hope Jokic is enough to beat the GSW!
The Blazers are a better team than the Nuggets, so my expectations are Western Conference Finals at the least. And I want our players to actually be healthy to play. Refs need to officiate games that get too physical better. Nurkic got hurt in a game against the Nets that could’ve definitely used a few more whistles. Player safety should always be the #1 concern.
Additionally, does the NBA force teams to disclose injuries?
If they don’t, it’s moronic to be so open about where your players are ailing
Malone is pretty much a stand up guy at all times and a credit to the coaching profession. I’d like to believe what he said about the contact. It seems unlikely that Jokic was trying to hurt Kanter, but any reasonable person can see clearly that this is a hard foul. If Meyers Leonard were to deliver the same degree of elbow to Jokic today and no foul was called I’d applaud the consistency. Otherwise …