Nuggets' Nikola Jokic Fined, Won't Face Suspension for Game 5 vs Suns

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic will not be fined for his altercation with Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic will be fined but will not be suspended for Game 5 against the Phoenix Suns. His fine will be $25,000 according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowksi. 

The series is currently tied 2-2 with Game 5 coming tomorrow, May 9. 

The incident Jokic was fined for involved an altercation with Suns owner Mat Ishbia during the second quarter of Phoenix's 129-124 win in Game 4 yesterday, where Jokic put his elbow into Ishbia while he tried to recover the ball from his hands. 

Ishbia himself took to Twitter and said Jokic shouldn't have been suspended.

“Great win for the Suns last night in an amazing series so far! That should be and is the only story. Suspending or fining anyone over last nights incident would not be right. I have alot of respect for Jokic and don’t want to see anything like that. Excited for game 5! Go Suns!” Ishbia tweeted following Game 4.

Tony Brothers - who was the head official - offered this explanation as to why Jokic received a technical for what happened.

“The ball went over into the corner there and one of the fans was holding the ball,” Brothers said. “Jokic came to get the ball, grabbed it away from the fan, then after that he deliberately gave him a shove and pushed him down, so he was issued an unsportsmanlike technical foul.”

Speaking after the game, Jokic was unhappy with the call.

"I thought the league was supposed to protect us or whatever, but maybe I'm wrong. We will see," Jokic said on the incident.

Nuggets head coach Mike Malone wasn't happy after the fact.

"I'm still not really sure what happened, I haven't seen a video of it. I think it's crazy Nikola got a technical foul in that situation, he was going to get the ball and some fan is holding on to the ball, he wants to be part of the game. Just give the ball up, man. They deemed Nikola doing something that was excessive I guess and they gave him the tech, but I still don't really understand it."

Jokic scored 53 points in Game 4's loss after dropping a triple-double in Game 3.