Los Angeles Lakers suffered a 136-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday after Luka Doncic was ejected in the fourth quarter. Doncic said he was trash-talking with a courtside fan but the official thought he was taking out his frustration on him.
“I never got a fan ejected,” Doncic said, explaining how he will often engage with opposing fans without asking arena security to intervene. “Never. 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.”
Los Angeles led 108-107 with 7:40 left in the final quarter but Doncic received a technical foul by referee J.T. Orr. In the third quarter, Doncic argued that a foul call was missed when Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt was hit on the previous possession.
“He thought I got fouled, which I did get fouled, I got slapped across the head,” Vanderbilt said of Doncic. “He was just telling the ref that that’s what happened. And the ref was just like … ‘I’ll talk to anybody but you, Luka.’ So it seemed a little personal at that point.”
Jeremy Price, the fan with whom Doncic was trash-talking, confirmed that the Slovenian was letting out his ire at him but official thought otherwise.
“During the game within the game, I mentioned that he was short [on his shot] and he missed it, and he turned around and he shot an expletive back and J.T. happened to see it and, at that point, T’d him up,” Price said on ESPN.
The Lakers veteran LeBron James admitted it was always going to be a tight contest but things changed after Doncic was sent out.
“Both teams knew that this was going to be a playoff-type atmosphere, playoff-type competition, playoff-type feeling, and it just got weird,” Lakers forward LeBron James said. “The game got weird after that.”
Added Lakers coach JJ Redick: “It was a great game that unfortunately didn’t get to finish out the way that I think every basketball fan would want because of some decision-making on some individuals’ parts.”
The Lakers will next take on the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.
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