PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic could only watch the end of his team's 129-121 overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night from the locker room, having been ejected late in regulation after a pair of skirmishes with opponents in an emotionally charged game between two division rivals battling for playoff position. Nurkic and Thunder All-Star guard Russell Westbrook tangled late in the second quarter. They came together under Oklahoma City's basket after a failed Westbrook foray into the paint, and Nurkic tripped Westbrook (not on purpose, he said) as they started to head the other direction. That led to Nurkic's first technical -- but only after Westbrook had retaliated by shoving Nurkic over around midcourt, which earned Westbrook a flagrant foul. It also led fans at the Moda Center to boo Westbrook throughout the rest of the game, which he didn't mind. "It doesn't matter to me," Westbrook said. "It doesn't change anything. But I would boo me too, if I were the other team." Tempers flared again in the final 30 seconds of regulation. With the score tied at 111, Paul George drove against Nurkic and elbowed the Portland center in the face as he went up to shoot. No foul was called, and Terrance Ferguson put back George's miss to give the Thunder a two-point lead. After needing a pair of timeouts to collect himself, Nurkic was fouled in the battle to rebound a Damian Lillard miss. He thought George hit him again and confronted George forehead to forehead, and both players drew technicals -- Nurkic's second, ending his evening. "It's my fault because I shouldn't have put myself in that position," Nurkic said. "Especially after the second hit from Paul George -- after the whistle, he hit me in the face and I should not have stepped back towards him. That cost us the game." Nurkic's ejection didn't immediately cost the Blazers, though that took some good fortune. With Nurkic unavailable to shoot free throws, Thunder coach Billy Donovan had the option to choose any player on Portland's active roster to shoot instead. Donovan chose Skal Labissiere, who had yet to play in the game. Cold off the bench, Labissiere missed the first free throw. With Portland down two and out of timeouts with just 4.4 seconds left, Labissiere was instructed to intentionally miss his second attempt. As the teams fought for the loose ball, Oklahoma City was called for yet another foul -- this one sending Al-Farouq Aminu to the free throw line, where he made both tries to tie the score. After a Westbrook turnover and a missed Lillard shot from beyond half court at the buzzer, the teams headed to overtime. "I want to see those plays," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. "I'd be the first one to say I'm wrong, but it was clearly a goaltending [on Nurkic for grabbing the rim] before anything ever happened. Then they called the foul and they put Nurkic to the free throw line and then he was ejected because of the technical, and then Skal misses and they call another foul on us. It was just too much." In the extra session, Nurkic's absence loomed large. The Thunder went repeatedly at Blazers backup Enes Kanter with pick-and-rolls, outscoring Portland 16-8 in overtime to win going away. Oklahoma City overcame Portland shooting a season-high 47 free throws, also the most by any Thunder opponent this season. Both Lillard and George shot 20 free throws, surpassing each of their career-high marks for attempts. "It was kind of weird because I planned on losing my money until I saw I shot 20 free throws," George said. "I had a lot of words for the officiating tonight, but I guess I can't say much with 20 free throws." Oklahoma City, which had lost five out of six games, moved one game ahead of the Blazers in the crowded Western Conference standings with the Houston Rockets sandwiched in between the two division rivals. The Thunder swept the season series 4-0, but Portland players still expressed hope afterward that the two teams might meet in the first round of the playoffs. If so, expect more flare-ups after the whistle. "It's a division matchup," George said. "There's a little bit of bad blood between all these games. I'm new to this. This is my second year being involved with this [Northwest] divisional stuff, but you get that kind of play when you're playing divisional opponents -- especially how tight us, Houston and Portland, how tight this is going down. We want it. They want it. It's going to be emotional sometime."<doc-sep>Thunder vs. Blazers was a hoot, finishing with an Oklahoma City victory in overtime, giving the visitors a season sweep over Portland. The game was really won at the end of regulation when Jusuf Nurkic, the second-best Blazer and a crucial combatant against OKC, got ejected. And Nurkic wouldn’t have gotten ejected at the end of regulation if he hadn’t been body-checked by Russell Westbrook earlier in the game. Let me explain. First of all, these dudes have real beef. Westbrook called Nurkic a clown earlier this season, which led to the Bosnian Beast referring to his foe as “Westbrick” on Twitter. Uh oh. In the second quarter on Thursday, Westbrook smashed into Nurkic as the players switched ends of the court behind the play, knocking the big man to the ground. Refs whistled the obvious foul and reviewed the play to determine whether to assess a flagrant foul on Westbrook. They did. But when reviewing the full play, they noticed that Nurkic intentionally tripped Westbrook near the baseline, before the cross-check. They assessed Nurkic a technical foul for that. Replay Review (Game Crew): if foul committed by Westbrook met criteria for a flagrant foul in Q2 of #OKCatPOR. Ruling: Technical foul assessed to Nurkic, flagrant foul penalty 1 assessed to Westbrook. pic.twitter.com/KkjPmBnCYk — NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) March 8, 2019 That would never have been seen, reviewed, or called without Westbrook picking up the flagrant. The rest of the game was chippy — Paul George, probably inadvertently, hit Nurkic with a tough elbow that went uncalled — on one drive. Nurkic took a Paul George elbow right to the chin pic.twitter.com/wsnkj0AIDm — Dime (@DimeUPROXX) March 8, 2019 With less than five seconds left in regulation, Nurkic grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled with the Blazers down two. George said something to him, and Nurkic went chest to chest and headbutted George, though not very hard. Refs reviewed it and assessed the dreaded double technicals. Replay Review (Game Crew): player altercation in Q4 of #OKCatPOR. Ruling: Double technical foul assessed to Nurkic and George, Nurkic ejected (second unsportsmanlike technical foul of the game). pic.twitter.com/TSBwP1HYN8 — NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) March 8, 2019 Being Nurkic’s second and George’s first (because the elbow was never caught but Nurk’s trip was), Nurkic got ejected. The Blazers were still able to send the game to overtime, but the Thunder dominated there, in part by attacking Enes Kanter, who had to play in place of the much more defensively stout Nurk. In the end, Nurkic did far less damage in his two violations than either Westbrook or George did in their shoulder smash and elbow, respectively. But this is how it goes sometimes, especially for imposing big men. So there you go. The Thunder won a big game in part because Westbrook jacked Nurkic in plain sight in the second quarter. Sign up for the newsletter Good Morning It’s Basketball NBA news and links delivered to your inbox each weekday, so you never miss out. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email (required) By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy. Subscribe Scores Pacers 98, Bucks 117 Thunder 129, Blazers 121 (OT) Schedule Here’s the national TV lineup for this weekend. All times Eastern. Full schedule can be found here. Friday: Sixers at Rockets, 8, ESPN Nuggets at Warriors, 10:30, ESPN Saturday: Celtics at Lakers, 8:30, ABC Sunday: Pacers at Sixers, 3:30, ABC Pelicans at Hawks, 6, NBA TV Suns at Warriors, 8:30, NBA TV Links How very tall and long basketball players find clothes that fit. Nice investigation by Matt Ellentuck. Examining Giannis Antetokounmpo’s unique defensive game. Otto Porter missed the end of a one-point game because of a drug test. Can DeMarcus Cousins do less? (In my experience, the answer is no. This is likely asking a Finnish black metal band to play a John Mayer song. It’s just not possible.) Sam Amick is convincing me that the Bucks could win the title. Why LeBron James passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list was pretty anticlimactic. Wait, there is a fourth Ball, but he’s a cousin and he’s pursuing a more normal ball to the pros? Brian Windhorst on Adam Silver’s forthright comments, especially on the impact of shorter contracts. Now that the Lakers’ playoff dreams are basically done, LeBron will be on minutes restrictions and won’t play back-to-backs. LITTY Committee. You are probably not watching Deandre Ayton’s big breakout. On a related note, the top five picks in the 2018 NBA Draft might make up the entire first-team All-Rookie. Perhaps one will get bumped to second team. That’s pretty impressive! And finally: Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye mercilessly trolling LeBron over his big scoring achievement this week. Be excellent to each other.<doc-sep>When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up fornow and never miss the top F1 stories again OKC managed to come out on top of their game with the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday morning in a pulsating contest that went to overtime. The game finished 129-121 to the Thunder, with Westbrook scoring 37 points, while MVP candidate Paul George registered 31 points. The Blazers’ Damian Lillard notched a monstrous 51 points of his own but it wasn’t enough for the Oregon team to get the win. And it was something else that happened during the game which managed to catch the attention of viewers. WANT THE LATEST NBA NEWS? LIKE OUR BRAND NEW NBA FACEBOOK PAGE<doc-sep>
A day after the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled out a 129-121 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers on the road, the NBA's chief of referees admitted the officials missed a crucial foul at the end of regulation that may have cost the Blazers the game. With the game tied at 111-111 and seconds left in regulation, OKC’s Paul George drove to the basket and missed a layup, but elbowed Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic in the face in the process, sending the big man to the ground. With Nurkic on the floor, Terrance Ferguson collected the loose ball and made a go-ahead layup for the Thunder. Inadvertent or not, there’s no denying the contact led to two pivotal points for OKC: Nurkic took a Paul George elbow right to the chin pic.twitter.com/wsnkj0AIDm — Dime (@DimeUPROXX) March 8, 2019 Though the Blazers forced overtime, Nurkic could not play in extra session due to picking up his second technical foul of the game in the final seconds of regulation when he was fouled collecting a rebound, but proceeded to get in George’s face, presumably still irked about the elbow. Replay Review (Game Crew): player altercation in Q4 of #OKCatPOR. Ruling: Double technical foul assessed to Nurkic and George, Nurkic ejected (second unsportsmanlike technical foul of the game). pic.twitter.com/TSBwP1HYN8 — NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) March 8, 2019 Nurkic and George were given double technicals, and Nurkic had to watch overtime from the locker room. Without Nurkic, who finished with 13 points and 17 rebounds, Portland was outscored 16-8 in the extra session. Monty McCutchen, the vice president of referee development and training, acknowledged on ESPN’s “The Jump” that George’s elbow should have been whistled for a foul. Story continues The blown call played a large role not just in the result of the game, but also in the standings. The two teams entered the night with identical records, fighting for home court advantage in the first round. And though the Thunder wound up sweeping the season series with Friday’s win, this could have been anyone’s game. Hopefully, if these two teams meet up in a potential playoff series, it won’t be decided by a missed call. More from Yahoo Sports: