Nikola Jokic instantly felt like the Oklahoma City Thunder had gone too far.Seconds later, one of the best centers in NBA history was taking on the reigning world champions by himself and in the middle of a tense on-court brawl.Nikola Jokic almost took on the entire OKC Thunder team in a fightgettyWhy did Jokic get so mad at Lu Dort? Fans immediately took Jokic’s side, while the bitterness between the Denver Nuggets and Thunder could continue to play out through the postseason. “Jokic was right to take it personal,” one fan tweeted. “Bro trips him on purpose, then acted like he did nothing wrong,” said a second fan.The ‘trip’ was courtesy of OKC’s Lu Dort, who appeared to intentionally back into Jokic while the three-time MVP was beginning to run down the court. The Thunder prevailed 127-121 in overtime on Friday.Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 36 points for OKC in his return from a nine-game absence due to an abdominal strain.But the melee between Jokic and the Thunder was the real talk, with Jokic adamant that Dort’s trip was ‘unnecessary.’ Shaquille O’Neal said his first thought about a ‘cheap shot’ was ‘you could have hurt me.’Barkley and Shaq battle over Jokic’s reaction But when Shaq said on ESPN that Dort merely ‘touched up’ Jokic to send a message, Charles Barkley hammered back.“He tripped that man,” Barkley said. “I think what Jokic is sensitive (to) is once you get hurt, and especially if somebody does something that’s dirty … he (Jokic) was out for a long time.”Jokic went after Lu Dort as the Nuggets fought the ThundergettyLu Dort appeared to trip and give a hip check to an unsuspecting Jokicx@bleacherreportThe former Philadelphia and Phoenix big man said that Jokic’s ‘antenna’ was up.NBA referee crew chief James Williams acknowledged that Dort’s combination of a hip check and trip was dangerous. “Lu Dort was assessed a flagrant foul penalty 2 because we deemed his contact on Jokic to be unnecessary and excessive with a high potential for injury, and also because the contact led to an altercation that did not dissolve,” Williams said. “So, by rule, a flagrant foul penalty 2 carries an automatic ejection.”Jokic decided to take matters into his own hands, almost headbutting Dort before getting in his face and pushing the smaller OKC player with his 6ft 11in and 284lb frame.Jokic wasn’t afraid of 1 vs 5 battle Jokic then found himself in the middle of five Thunder players and didn’t back down.View Tweet: https://t.co/Mrz52EvLFRThe Serbian native nicknamed the ‘Joker’ again didn’t back down and aggressively pushed back vs an OKC player, which only increased the intensity in the middle of the court.“It’s an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction,” Jokic said.“There is no such thing — I think there’s not supposed to be those things on a basketball floor. So, it was just an unnecessary move and a necessary reaction by me.”While Jokic steamed and fans called for Dort to be suspended, SGA took the high road and only saw a competitive game between two strong teams.“They’re obviously a high-level team, we’re a high-level team, and we’ve seen each other a lot in the past couple of years, so we might be a little bit more into the game just because we know the opponent,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It was fun. It was good out there. End-of-season basketball is like that. It’s that chippy, that physical, so it was good to get one of those in the regular season.”Stay up to date with the latest from the NBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.