On Monday, the Miami Heat took a 113-96 loss to the Denver Nuggets on the road.
The outcome of the game wasn’t the big story, though. Instead, an incident near the end of the game stole the show.
With just a few minutes remaining, Heat big man Markieff Morris committed a hard foul on Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic. That didn’t sit right with Jokic, who immediately went after Morris and delivered a cheap shot from behind.
The two teams exchanged words in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but it sounds like it didn’t stop there.
According to Aaron Ontiveroz, a photographer based in Denver, Jimmy Butler led the Heat players to confront the Nuggets. Security apparently intervened before anything further happened.
It certainly seems like a rivalry is brewing between these two teams. That should be a very interesting storyline to monitor for the rest of the season and possibly beyond.
Additionally, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on whether or not the NBA hands out any suspensions for the incident. A suspension to Jokic seems like a possibility, and a suspension to Morris might be on the table as well.
Both players were ejected from Monday’s game.
Miami will be back in action on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Although L.A. isn’t playing its best basketball right now, the matchup still presents the Heat with a solid test.
Miami is still near the top of the Eastern Conference standings thanks to its 7-3 record. Perhaps Monday’s incident with Denver will give the Heat some added motivation to keep things moving in the right direction.