Lakers are appealing technical foul called on Luka Doncic on Saturday
· Yahoo Sports
The Los Angeles Lakerswon their ninth straight game on Saturday over the Orlando Magic in dramatic fashion, as reserve guard Luke Kennard made the game-winning 3-pointer just before the final horn. But that win was marred by the fact that Luka Doncic was assessed his 16th technical foul of the season.
He received that technical foul in the third quarter when he and Magic big man Goga Bitadze had a verbal exchange. Per NBA rules, when a player receives his 16th technical foul of the season, it triggers an automatic one-game suspension for him.
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Per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the Lakers are appealing that technical foul.
"The Los Angeles Lakers have already appealed to the NBA to rescind Luka Doncic's technical foul from L.A.'s 105-104 win on Saturday, a team source told ESPN, while Doncic and Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze offered differing accounts of what led to the tech being called," McMenamin wrote.
Doncic was asked after the game what happened during that exchange.
"I'm definitely hoping [it is rescinded]," Doncic said after the game. "Obviously, I let my team down getting that last tech. But honestly, I wasn't trying to. [Bitadze] said at the free throw, he would [expletive] my whole family. And at some point, this is a basketball court. At some point, I just can't stand it. I got to stand up for myself. But I know I got to do better.
"My teammates, I know they have my back, so I let them down today. But hopefully, it gets rescinded."
Bitadze claimed that Doncic provoked him by cursing in Serbian, and that he merely repeated the same curse back to the superstar (he briefly played basketball in Serbia several years ago). The Lakers have reportedly said in their appeal that the referees working the contest should've given Doncic and Bitadze a warning before calling any technical fouls.
After Doncic shot 10-of-17 from the field and scored 24 points in the first half of Saturday's game, he went 2-of-13 the rest of the way. He continues to lead everyone in the NBA with an average of 33.4 points a game.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers are appealing technical foul called on Luka Doncic on Saturday