OKLAHOMA CITY — Lakers star Luka Doncic said he was trash-talking with a courtside fan – not a referee – before being ejected during the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ 136-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night at Paycom Center.
The 26-year-old Slovenian star was ejected with 7:40 remaining in the game after making a layup that put the Lakers ahead, 108-107.
Doncic appeared to say something to a fan after scoring, but referee J.T. Orr thought Doncic was talking to him, leading to the second technical foul of the night (and the automatic ejection) for Doncic.
“You can see that it happened,” Doncic said after the game. “But I never got a fan ejected. Never. But if he’s gonna talk, I’m gonna talk back, like always. So that had nothing to do with the ref. So I didn’t really understand.”
Orr assessed Doncic his first technical at the 4:02 mark of the third quarter.
Crew chief Tony Brothers said during Tuesday’s postgame pool report that Doncic “looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.”
Thunder fan Jeremy Price, who had the fourth-quarter exchange with Doncic, told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that he told Doncic that he was short on a shot he missed earlier in the game. Doncic also exchanged trash talk with Price last season while he played for the Dallas Mavericks.
“He shot an [expletive] back,” Price told ESPN, “and J.T. happened to see it and that point, T’d him up.”
Doncic and his teammates, including LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt and Dorian Finney-Smith, tried clarifying the situation to Orr, but the technical wasn’t rescinded and Doncic was dismissed from the game.
“I don’t know why the ref was taking it personal,” James said. “He had already gave Luka one, and Luka knew that and Luka was going back and forth at that time with a fan that was sitting courtside like Luka does and the fans get to talk [expletive], talk out of their mind, whatever the case may be.
“And Luka was going back and forth [and] the ref took it upon himself to think it was versus him, or whatever the case may be. But then another ‘T’ on Vando after a blocked shot and the game was just weird as hell after that moment.”
The Thunder outscored the Lakers 29-12 after Doncic’s ejection to pull away and secure the win.
“I mean, it was tough,” Doncic said. “I mean, we were right there. We fought the whole game. We were down eight at halftime. We came back in the third quarter. We were fighting, man. So it was tough to see this kind of situation happen. And that’s on me, too. I can’t let my team down like that.”
COACHING CHANGE
The Denver Nuggets shockingly fired head coach Michael Malone, along with General Manager Calvin Booth on Tuesday, with the Nuggets in fourth place in the Western Conference and looking to clinch a playoff spot.
The firings came just a couple of weeks after the postseason-bound Memphis Grizzlies fired longtime coach Taylor Jenkins.
Malone, who had been the Nuggets’ coach since 2015, led Denver to the 2023 NBA championship.
“Shocked, I think like most people,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “The coaching profession, it has always been perilous. It is getting more and more perilous. And the patience across the board for everything, coaching players, front office, it just feels everybody is really pushing for now. And there’s certainly franchises, OKC is a great example, that have had the same GM for 17 years or however long it is.
“And [Mark] Daigneault, I would expect to be here a while. It’s, the continuity piece is very hard in the NBA and it’s not just with coaching, it’s with rosters. And that’s just the reality of the NBA now. And Coach Malone is a great basketball coach. Had the fortune to play for his father for five years in Orlando. So I’ve always felt a connection to Coach Malone and a high level of respect.”