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As a tightly contested fourth quarter between the Portland Trail Blazers and Dallas Mavericks wound down, Salah Mejri and Jusuf Nurkic became entangled on a layup attempt by the Mavs big man. Nurkic went up and contested Mejri, but he found his arm locked on the way down by the Dallas center.
Nurkic took issue with it, and the teams engaged in a back and forth. In post-game video provided by NBC Sports Northwest, the Blazers offered their takes on the incident:
Salah Mejri threatened to come into the #Blazers locker room after his altercation with Nurkić, Turner. "The guy literally threw himself on the ground, then commits to talking $#!t..." #ripcity pic.twitter.com/eadnSsNnow
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) January 21, 2018
Nurkic on the encounter and what caused him to react so strongly:
“I thought he locked my arm, so I didn’t like it ... Dirty plays, I don’t like that.”
Evan Turner on being involved in the scrum:
“I don’t know who pushed who first, but ya know Mejri did a little bit of acting—great acting. The guy literally threw himself on the ground and then commits to talking (bleep). He was like...’I’ll come to the locker room.’”
CJ McCollum didn’t seem fazed by the scuffle:
“If they really want to fight, they know where to find people.”
This incident comes just days after the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers engaged in post-game antics that led to two suspensions.
The Blazers and Mavs will play not even a week later on Jan. 26 in Dallas.