Communicating with officials has never been a strong suit for Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic as he tends to complain about a lot of missed calls. Every star in the NBA does that, but Doncic tends to take it to another level.
Doncic has to be careful as NBA players get an automatic one-game suspension once they pick up 16 technicals fouls throughout the regular season. They then get suspended again for every two technicals after that.
That hasn’t happened to Luka yet in his career as he has finished three separate seasons with 15 technicals. He is now facing perhaps his biggest test though as he picked up his 15th in Thursday night’s loss to the Denver Nuggets with 20 games to go. It didn’t look like he did much to earn this one, but the officials explained after that it was due to his use of profanity:
Here is the pool report on what the officials said about Luka's technical and Jokic fumbling the inbounds pass at the end of the first half: pic.twitter.com/9PH9DcNNiz
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) March 6, 2026
Doncic did not agree, pointing out that several other players were saying the same things, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Because I yelled, I guess. That’s what he said. But I heard three other players say the exact same sentence and they didn’t get a tech. That’s my problem. I was trying not to talk at all. That was the first thing I said, no warning or nothing. But I heard three other players say the exact same thing and nothing. It’s just… I don’t know what to say.”
Regardless, Doncic discussed his plans for the remainder of the season now that he knows one technical will get him suspended:
“Don’t get another tech… We’ll see. Can’t predict the future.”
Going 20 games without getting one feels nearly impossible for Doncic, although it is worth noting that he recently snapped a streak of 15 straight games without a technical.
Given how close the standings are in the Western Conference, the Lakers will need Luka on the floor producing down the stretch of the season and not worrying about possibly having to deal with a suspension.
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