DENVER — Jamal Murray made the defensive play of the game, poking the ball out of bounds off Kawhi Leonard with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Denver Nuggets down one.
Nikola Jokic went to retrieve the ball to catch the Los Angeles Clippers scrambling, but couldn’t because multiple assistants on the visiting bench held onto the rock. At the center of the melee was legendary coach Jeff Van Gundy, clutching the basketball like he once did Alonzo Mourning’s ankle. The two wrestled for the ball for multiple seconds, giving the Clippers enough time to challenge the out-of-bounds call. The referee’s decison stayed the same, but the literal delay of the game by the Clippers’ bench was not penalized, and the Nuggets had to use a timeout to draw a frontcourt play.
Insane that there is no penalty for this… Jeff Van Gundy joins the Mat Ishbia school of clowns with this move.
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) April 19, 2025
It all worked out for Denver as Russell Westbrook hit a huge corner three, which would help force overtime. But it’s the second time in a playoff game that Jokic has fought for an out-of-bounds ball with a non-playing member of his playoff foe. This happened in 2023, when he and Suns owner Mat Ishbia got into it over quickly getting the ball back into play. Jokic is so known for taking advantage of this situation on out-of-bounds plays that the Thunder ran an extreme strategy to slow down Denver earlier this season.
“It’s part of basketball nowadays, because I think definitely it’s not supposed to happen,” Jokic said. “I think the NBA wants to make a about getting the ball in quicker, because that was definitely emphasized when they came to us before the before the season, they said, sometimes when I tie my shoes in this and that, I can steal a couple seconds, and they said, I cannot do that anymore. But seems like they can do it.”
Clippers head coach Ty Lue didn’t see this specific play but says he got into a similar situation with Jokic during Game 1.
“I didn’t see it, but he did with me too, trying to get the ball in fast. That’s smart,” Lue said. “The team has a chance to challenge. We want to get the ball in quickly. We tell our guys to do the same thing. But he is the best at.”
Jokic’s teammates found it funnier than he did.
“He looked pretty good,” Christian Braun said of Van Gundy. “Head was down on the ball. It’s pretty embarrassing for Jokic, but he was in the weight room after, so it’s good.”
Jokic claimed it was a two-on-one, so he was outmatched in fighting for the ball.
