Lu Dort, Jeremiah Fears fined $25,000 each for Thunder-Pelicans altercation

The NBA has fined Oklahoma City Thunder veteran Lu Dort and New Orleans Pelicans rookie Jeremiah Fears $25,000 for their scuffle at the end of Tuesday’s matchup at the Paycom Center. Dort and Fears got into a physical altercation at the end of the game after the game clock expired in a 104-95 Thunder win. Words were exchanged between the two guards before Lu shoved Jeremiah, and both teams’ benches cleared.

Dort and Fears were each fined $25,000, per NBA PR.

Fears was held back by Pelicans’ security from the floor, through the player tunnel, and toward the visiting teams’ locker room, as he was still livid in trying to get at Dort after both teams separated the two.

Still holding Fears after the game. pic.twitter.com/AzL7FLwaGS

— Jerry Ramsey (@TVsJerry) January 28, 2026

Hours after the game, Fears commented on a photo of the scuffle from his Instagram account.

Fears had words for Dort in the comments section of the Instagram post.

“soft [as hell],” Fears replied to the photo, accompanied by three crying-laughing emojis.

Jeremiah Fears’ reaction to the altercation: https://t.co/Pcv52T4P7Y pic.twitter.com/LEGqzhRz1z

— Jordan Davis (@thejordancdavis) January 28, 2026

Tuesday’s matchup is the third and final regular-season meeting between the Thunder and Pelicans.

Mark Daigneault’s take on Lu Dort/Jeremiah Fears scuffle

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault reacted to Lu Dort and Jeremiah Fears‘ scuffle by stating he wasn’t surprised it happened, considering the referees had lost control of the game in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Dort and Fears’ fight happened minutes after Jaylin Williams and Saddiq Bey had to be separated after a hard foul.

For Daigneault, tensions between the Thunder and Pelicans’ players only escalated from that point forward, leading to Fears and Dort’s end-of-game scuffle.

“Two things on it. The first one is: I thought good guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes. That altercation at the end started well before that with the Bey and J-Will situation. I thought they could have managed that cleaner,” Daigneault said. “Then, the second thing is: I think that’s a foul on Dort.

“And if it was, they should put a whistle on that play regardless of the score and the time, because if they do that, everybody stops playing, and you can legislate the situation as you normally would. But, because they didn’t put a whistle on it, it’s the end of the game. You can do nothing about it, and you end up with that situation,” Daigneault concluded.

Mark Daigneault’s response to the Dort/Fears scuffle: “Two things… first, good guys, good crew, but I thought they lost control of the game in the final minutes…

Second, I think that was a foul on Dort. And if it was, they should put a whistle on that play regardless” pic.twitter.com/whzDoBbFXb

— Josue Pavón (@Joe_Sway) January 28, 2026

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