Heat Culture? Nikola Jokic Beat Miami, Then Partied With His Brothers on South Beach

Nikola Jokic had his much-anticipated rematch with the Miami Heat on Monday night. The game took place in Miami, three weeks after he hit Markieff Morris and had Jimmy Butler yelling at Nuggets assistant coaches. Morris did not play because he was dealing with the effects of whiplash from Jokic's cheap shot. Butler didn't play either because his tailbone hurt. Jokic went out and had 24 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists as the Nuggets won.

Udonis Haslem, the team's veteran enforcer of Heat Culture, did not play. The fans booed, but Jokic has heard it all before.

After the game Jokic and his brothers went out and partied in Miami.

So what's the lesson here? Hopefully, it's that the days of actual revenge games are a thing of the past in the NBA. The league stepped in and there was no escalation during the rematch. By the time Jokic sees the Heat again during the 2022-23 season, who knows if anyone will even remember the original incident.

We saw a similar ho-hum situation play out in Detroit on Sunday as LeBron James met the Detroit Pistons and Isaiah Stewart and nothing happened. The only difference is that LeBron didn't take his friends out to the club afterwards.