Russell Westbrook was called for a flagrant-1 foul and Jusuf Nurkic got a technical for an incident between the two in the second quarter of Thursday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Portland Trail Blazers game.
Westbrook and Nurkic got mixed up on a play under the basket. As they headed up the court, Nurkic tripped Westbrook. After crossing halfcourt, Westbrook retaliated by shoving Nurkic to the floor.
Westbrook and Nurkic continue to beef #ripcity pic.twitter.com/97J2FCs7Qb
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) March 8, 2019
Westbrook got the harsher penalty with the flagrant. His actions were intentional, whereas there’s a debate about whether Nurkic’s trip was accidental.
The incident should not come as a surprise. Westbrook and Nurkic have history and even traded jabs at each other back in January.
