Nuggets' David Adelman Reveals What Led to First-Ever Ejection vs. Rockets

The Denver Nuggets' coach got ejected after a fiery exchange with a referee against the Houston Rockets.

Dec 20, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman calls a time out during the second half against the Houston Rockets at Ball Arena. | Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Less than a week after beating the Houston Rockets in an overtime thriller, the Denver Nuggets did not get the result they wanted in the rematch. At home, the Nuggets fell to the Rockets 115-101, snapping a six-game winning streak.

Kevin Durant and Reed Sheppard combined for 59 points to lead Houston, but the highlight of the game ended up being a fiery exchange between David Adelman and the referees. After Nikola Jokic was slapped a few times with no whistle blown, the Nuggets' head coach did not hold back on the referee, with a hot mic catching him say, "What the f--k is wrong with you?"

David Adelman shouts in the referee's face "WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" and gets ejected from the game (2nd technical), after Jokic didn't get a foul (with replays) pic.twitter.com/HDb1TOTcue

— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 21, 2025

This was Adelman's second technical of the game, which ultimately resulted in an ejection, marking the first of his young head coaching career. After the game, Adelman explained what happened in that fiery exchange that led to the ejection.

"It felt like a reaction to the game earlier in the week. That's what it felt like to me," Adelman said. "They had one foul with five minutes to go in the second quarter, and I just felt like both teams were playing extremely hard, physical... Honestly, I was confused. And so I was just looking for answers, and it turns out I had to leave. Sometimes confusion can lead to destructive things, right?"

"It seemed like [the referee] kept walking away further and further, and I just thought we would talk. and turns out they told me I had to leave."

Nuggets' rough night ends with an Adelman ejection

By the time Adelman got ejected, the Nuggets were already down by 17 with less than nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. Of course, that is plenty of time to mount a comeback, but it was simply not the Nuggets' night.

The Nuggets shot just 40% from the field and 28% from three-point range, marking their lowest-scoring outing of the season through 27 games. The Nuggets should still have plenty of optimism, as they were down Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, and Peyton Watson in the loss to the Rockets, and they are not going to shoot this poorly every night.

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