During the Mavs Game 5 victory over the Utah Jazz, Hassan Whiteside committed a hard foul on Luka Doncic, attempting to block his shot while the star forward was driving to the rim for a dunk, knocking him square on the hardwood.
Even though there wasn't any malicious intent in Whiteside's attempt to block Doncic, Whiteside might have done a bit too much when he seemingly slammed the All-Star to the floor with extra force while they were entangled. Whiteside then stood over Doncic, which led to Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith to approach the seven-footer to defend their star.
This led to a scuffle between both teams, leading to Whiteside and Bullock getting tossed from the game.
When speaking to reporters following the Mavericks' 102-77 victory, Doncic addressed the nasty scuffle and downplayed the whole incident as just being a part of playoff basketball.
“Oh nothing. It’s playoffs, man. It’s playoffs. There’s always going to be tension. I tried to dunk and wasn’t successful. But it’s playoffs, man. It’s playoffs,” Doncic said of the skirmish, per Mike Leslie of WFAA Dallas. "They had my back, both of them, anybody, we had each other's back. That's what great teams do. I would go with these guys to war. This is a special team."
For Whiteside's foul and eventual involvement in the scuffle, he was called for two technical fouls and ejected. Bullock, who already had one technical earlier in the game, was whistled for another technical and also ejected. Finney-Smith also drew a technical.
Doncic said that if the league issues any fines for his teammates involvement he will cover it.
It seems as though Whiteside's hard foul may have some frustration in it since the Jazz were trailing big at that time. Good thing the Doncic didn't take the incident all that seriously with the Mavs only a game away from clinching the series.
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