NBA Announces Punishment for Nikola Jokic And Julius Randle on Sunday
Things got chippy between Nikola Jokic and Jaden McDaniels in Game 4 on Saturday. This was after McDaniels made a layup with less than five seconds left in the game. NBA fans already knew that the Minnesota Timberwolves won the game, but the forward still made a shot since he was wide open.
Immediately after McDaniels made the shot, the Denver Nuggets star rushed to confront him. Both players had to be separated, and star forward Julius Randle joined the shoving match. Jokic and Randle were ejected with only 1.3 seconds left.
On Sunday, the NBA announced punishments for the ejected players' role in the altercation.
Jokic And Randle Fined By the NBA
The NBA announced that Jokic has been fined $50,000, and Randle was fined $35,000. Both players will still be allowed to play for Game 5 of their first-round series.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/CNOiLyOOgm
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 26, 2026
The series has been intense. The Nuggets and Timberwolves are familiar with each other, having been in the postseason twice. This is the third time that both teams have matched up against each other, and fans have noticed how intense the games they've played have been.
The first shot was fired by McDaniels, who criticized the Nuggets' defense after the Timberwolves' 119-114 Game 2 win. He called out almost every player on the opposing team and told the media that none of them are great defenders.
"Go after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team. Just go at them," McDaniels said. "They're all bad defenders."
Despite the strong callout from the Timberwolves player, the Nuggets shrugged it off. Christian Braun understands that it's part of the rivalry.
"It's part of the rivalry," Braun said. "I don't think it caught anybody off guard. He's kinda speaking his truth and what he believes. We'll allow them to do that. We kinda want to take care of our own."
McDaniels backed up his trash talk and had 20 points and 10 rebounds to help the Timberwolves to a 113-95 win in Game 3.
The first postseason matchup between the Nuggets and Timberwolves was in the first-round of the 2023 playoffs. Denver took control of the series and eliminated Minnesota after five games.
The next series was in 2024. It was a hard-fought second-round matchup that lasted through seven games. However, the Timberwolves got the best of the Nuggets to advance to the Western Conference finals.
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