The Footprint center turned into an Octagon for a few minutes! The Friday night challenge between the Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns turned into an ugly brawl in the latter half. It was the Suns’ big man, Jusuf Nurkic, going after the Mavs’ Naji Marshall. The duo engaged in a verbal volley followed by brief physical exchanges all of a sudden.

The officials and players immediately rushed to the spot to separate the players. It all began with Nurkic’s aggressive offensive play. Minutes into the third quarter, the Suns’ big man aggressively attempted to pierce through Daniel Gafford’s defense near the rim. But the hoopster ended up shoving him down with force and the ref instantly blew the whistle for an offensive foul.

Jusuf Nurkic, who took off, heading to the other end after the whistle, turned around after one of the Dallas players said something. Naji Marshall, who was helping Daniel Gafford to get up alongside PJ Washington, walked toward the Suns’ star for an argument. Without any heads-up, Nurkic swung his hand and slapped Marshall on his head. That’s it. Washington charged after Marshall’s punch which missed the big man, however, by a whisker, and pushed him to the floor.

Before things could get worse, everyone rushed and paused the fight. It immediately brings flashbacks from the past, when Jusuf Nurkic was involved in an ugly incident with Draymond Green. While it was Green who swung his arm at the big man last season, this time, it was Nurkic, who made the reckless attack. Nevertheless, it forced the refs to head to the scorer’s table to decide the ejections.

Jusuf Nurkic’s ugly act costs triple ejections!

The refs had a simple decision to make. They dropped a technical foul each on Naji Marshall, PJ Washington, and Jusuf Nurkic and also ejected them from the game. Pretty simple, right? Kevin Durant dropped the technical free throw and cut the Suns’ deficit to 15 points. Despite losing two players on the floor, though, the Mavs still had full control over the game.

Why not? Apart from Kyrie Irving’s 20-pointer outing, the Mavs received maximum support from the bench -40 points. Maxi Kleber and Spencer Dinwiddie put up 30 together. Meanwhile, Klay Thompson and Daniel Gafford added a combined 27 points.

On the other hand, lone warrior Kevin Durant barely received any support from his team. Apart from Royce O’Neale’s 14 points off the bench, none of them really stepped up. In the absence of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal didn’t make his presence felt, as he exited the floor with only 11 points after a 38-minute stay.

KD was an absolute dynamite on the floor, dropping 35 points. If Nurkic stayed, maybe the Slim Reaper would have gotten some help to close out the game in the home side’s favor. In short, the Mavs were just too deep for the Suns to handle, despite losing two key players. Not to forget that the Suns didn’t have two names as well, D-Book and Grayson Allen, on the floor.

What do you think? Would the result have been different if they both were on the floor? Let us know in the comments.