The NBA has rescinded the technical foul officials assessed to Luka Doncic on Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a league spokesperson said Tuesday.
He officially has five technical fouls this season and none since November 15. A one-game suspension is triggered by 16 in a season.
Doncic has had a penchant for receiving technical fouls, finishing the last two regular seasons with 15 technicals, one shy of the suspension. He has also had two technical fouls rescinded in each of the previous two seasons.
The call against him during the Mavs’ Monday night win over the Oklahoma City Thunder was questionable.
Two minutes into the third quarter, Doncic was upset with teammate Dwight Powell after the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander slithered around the starting center and Dorian Finney-Smith for a basket and a foul.
Doncic turned to Powell, clapped twice, and shouted, “let’s go” in frustration.
Referee JB DeRosa appeared to think Doncic was complaining about the foul call, which he had been doing throughout the game, and whistled him for the technical foul, which would have been his sixth this season.
Luka Doncic got a technical foul for yelling at his teammate, Dwight Powell. He was not happy ?pic.twitter.com/I6Pb24ZSX2
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 13, 2022
A technical foul can be assessed to a player on the court or on the bench for conduct that an official deems is detrimental to the game, per NBA rules.
Doncic tried to clarify to DeRosa at the moment: “I’m talking to my teammate, man! I’m talking to my teammate.”
And after the game: “They said that I looked at him (the ref), but I didn’t look at him. We sent about seven angles to the NBA office so they could see I was yelling to teammates.”
The league agreed with Doncic as they reset his technical foul count to five. Six technicals through the first 25 games would have put the Slovenian superstar well past the pace to receive a one-game suspension.
Still, with five technicals, the Mavs star is in danger of facing suspension late in the season, so every buffer counts.
It’s all but a guarantee that Doncic will pick up more technicals throughout the season. All Mavericks fans have to hope for is that he does not get 11 more.
