Luka Dončić was ejected from the Los Angeles Lakers’ 136-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night after a case of mistaken trash talk with under eight minutes to play.
Dončić, who was hit with two technical fouls in the game, said after the contest that his second tech was not intended for any officials. Instead, he said he was responding to a fan seated courtside.
“I never got a fan ejected. Never,” Dončić told reporters. “But if [the fan is] going to talk, I’m going to talk back, like always. That had nothing to do with the ref. So I didn’t really understand.”
Luka Dončić Being Ejected Proved to Be Game-Changing
Following a made basket with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter that gave the Lakers a 108-107 lead, Dončić turned and said something to the courtside fan. Referee J.T. Orr was in the same line of sight and assessed a second technical foul, believing Dončić was addressing him. That led to an automatic ejection.
In the postgame pool report, crew chief Tony Brothers said the ejection stemmed from Dončić using “vulgar language” directed at an official.
Dončić had already received a technical foul earlier in the game for arguing a non-call when a Thunder player hit Jarred Vanderbilt in the head.
The Lakers collapsed after the ejection, getting outscored 29-12 over the final 7:40. The loss secured the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference for the Houston Rockets. Los Angeles remains third in the standings but leads a tight four-team cluster by only one game with three games remaining.
Dončić and the Lakers head to Dallas next to face the Mavericks on Wednesday night. It will be Dončić’s first game back at American Airlines Center since being traded in February.
