Smoothie King Center descended into chaos on Friday night, and while the Heat beat the Pelicans 106-95 in New Orleans, the talk from this one surely won’t be the final score.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Heat and Pelicans got into a full-on brawl — with Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler at the center of the quarrel — in what became a brutal scene.
Things started with a little over 11 minutes left in the quarter when Pelicans star Zion Williamson went up and missed a shot, which he thought he was fouled on.
After Butler rebounded the ball, though, Williamson stole the ball back in the paint, going up for a shot near the net before he was fouled hard by Kevin Love.
That’s when Marshall came in and appeared to give Love a bit of a shove, which set off Butler, who in turn pushed Marhsall.
Butler said after the game that he believed Williamson flopped on the Love foul.
“Then [Marshall] came and put his hands on K-Love and that’s how it all escalated,” Butler said, according to the Associated Press.
For his part, Williamson said he wasn’t angry with Love.
The Heat and Pelicans got into a brawl during their game Friday night.
“I wasn’t tripping about K-Love because he actually protected me on my fall,” Williamson said after the game, according to the AP. “All of a sudden I see Butler kind of lunging toward Naji, so I‘m trying to get there like, ’Yo, relax, like what’s going on?'”
“It’s people competing — people riding for their teammates,” he added.
The Pelicans’ small forward took exception to this and grabbed Butler’s neck, and that’s when things really got out of hand in a moving scrum, with multiple players and coaches from both teams ending up at center court and trying to quell what was already more than a testy scene.
After the teams came close together at least twice in tense moments, they were eventually separated and went back to their benches.
Naji Marshall grabbed Jimmy Butler in the neck during the Heat-Pelicans game Friday night.
Marshall and Butler were both ejected from the game as well as the Pelicans’ Jose Alvarado and the Heat’s Thomas Bryant.
A video from a fan in the stands appeared to show Alvardo and Byrant coming to blows near the scorer’s table before they were ultimately tossed from the game.
The Bally Sports New Orleans feed also caught things getting chippy in the stands, as a fan in a Dwyane Wade Heat jersey appeared to be escorted out of the venue.
Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler are involved in an altercation during the fourth quarter of the Heat’s win. Getty Images
Naji Marshall and Jimmy Butler were both ejected for their actions. Getty Images“It was just, I think, a misunderstanding of the play,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, according to the AP. “I think Zion slipped on the play when K-Love grabbed him and it looked a lot worse than what it was.
“And then everybody kind of overreacted.”
