DENVER \u2014 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was called for his 15th technical foul this season in Thursday\u2019s 120-113 loss to the Nuggets. His next one will result in the Lakers star having to serve a mandatory one-game suspension.<\/p>\n
Official Dedrick Taylor called the technical foul on Don\u010di\u0107 after a no-call when Don\u010di\u0107 thought Denver\u2019s Bruce Brown fouled him. Play continued on the other end of the court, and after the Nuggets scored, Taylor whistled Don\u010di\u0107 for the technical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI yelled at him I guess. That\u2019s what he said. But I heard three other players say the exact same sentence and didn\u2019t get a tech,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s my problem, you know, I was trying not to talk at all. This is the first thing I said, no warning or nothing. But I heard three other players say the exact same thing and nothing. So it\u2019s just, you know\u2026 I don\u2019t know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crew chief Ed Malloy told a pool reporter that the call was made \u201cfor using profanity directed towards a referee. We are trained not to stop an offensive transition when calling a technical foul on the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 said he hoped the technical would be rescinded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean if three other people say it and I\u2019m the only one that get a tech, what\u2019s the point of that?\u201d he said. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t trying to talk at all and that was the first thing I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach JJ Redick said the Lakers have actively discussed limiting their interactions with officials. The team was called for three technical fouls in a tight win Tuesday against the New Orleans Pelicans. Pregame, Redick had mentioned Don\u010di\u0107 was aware of how close he was to a possible suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s aware that he\u2019s close,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAnd I think he\u2019s trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers were frustrated with the officiating in Denver, with the Nuggets taking 16 more free throws. LeBron James, who injured his left elbow after being knocked to the ground driving past Nikola Joki\u0107, said officials told him the contact was \u201cmarginal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same s\u2014. \u2018Marginal.\u2019 It\u2019s the same s\u2014. It\u2019s, it\u2019s, it\u2019s \u2026 whatever,\u201d James said. \u201cThat\u2019s all they keep saying is, \u2018marginal.\u2019 I\u2019m so f\u2014ing tired of that word. It doesn\u2019t make no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers attempted just 15 free throws Thursday, tied for their third fewest in a game this year. Their 26.4 free throw attempts per game ranks third in the NBA. The lack of free throws, combined with a handful of missed layups and an awful start helped keep the Lakers from getting an important road win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the two things that sort of like if you look at the aggregate of the game, obviously just the start was detrimental to our team. But we missed four layups, plus a follow dunk. So that\u2019s five layups in the second half,\u201d Redick said after. \u201cAnd I thought the refs were very consistent. Don\u2019t think that we necessarily got fouled or not fouled and we weren\u2019t fouling or not fouling. You lose free throws essentially by 14 because we were fouling at the end. The free throws by 14 and then the missed layups. That\u2019s really what hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was called for his 15th technical foul this season in Thursday\u2019s 120-113 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7232,590,85],"class_list":["post-522863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}