San Antonio Spurs forward Julian Champagnie as well as Oklahoma City Thunder players Kenrich Williams and Lu Dort were all ejected following an incident that could've turned into a brawl had multiple players not intervened. Both Spurs acting head coach Mitch Johnson and Thunder head man Mark Daigneault shared initial reactions to the altercation.

“It looked like Kenrich Williams was being aggressive, and Julian (Champagnie) was opening up,” Johnson said.

“We had not been a team that retaliated very much. We retaliated tonight,” Daigneault countered.

While Johnson spoke in general as he addressed the incident, his counterpart was a bit sharper.

Spurs and Thunder coaches share thoughts on the scuffle

San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (10) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) in the middle of an altercation during the second half at Frost Bank Center.
Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Johnson and Thunder Head Coach Mark Daigneault both discussed the incident in their respective post-game press conferences following the 146-132 Thunder victory.

“It happens so much now in our game, I don't know. It feels like the rule has changed maybe, but when people are aggressive, there's a lot of these incidental elbows or contact,” Johnson said.

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Daigneault invoked an incident in which Kenrich Williams was hit the head by an elbow with no foul call. The 40-year-old coach also mentioned that his team deals with the worst free-throw differential in the NBA.

“I think there's a cumulative frustration and I think our guys got to a point where they'd had enough,” Daigneault declared.

“I don't know if that's an offensive foul or not,” Johnson said of a Champagnie elbow Daigneault admitted may not have been intentional. “I don't know what that line is of what space you're allowed,” Johnson continued.

While Daigneault spoke in terms of the officials needing to call things more evenly, Johnson was more broad in speaking of the specific incident.

“I don't really know who's at fault, to be honest. It just looked like that is what initiated it and then there was some response on both ends. I didn't think much of it,” the 38-year-old regular Spurs assistant coach continued. “People were just protecting their guys and whatnot, but I didn't think it was anything intentional. I didn't look at the discrepancy to see if they should've been thrown out or not, but the intentional basketball play I did see.”

Two ways of looking at the same incident, neither Johnson nor Daigneault directly pointed the finger at the other team. Instead, they took different stances.