The Los Angeles Lakers are coming off a loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday night, 120-113, which brought a slew of potential bad news.
While the Lakers have mostly had a healthy roster recently, that could change. Superstar LeBron James hit the court hard in the fourth quarter, landing on his elbow, and had to leave the game to get further evaluation. While he returned to action with two minutes remaining, James indicated he’d monitor the injury and see if he could participate in his team’s next game.
Luka Doncic led the Lakers, scoring 27 points to go with his 11 rebounds and seven assists. However, the team was hit with some news that could cause future problems for Los Angeles with Luka as they compete in the Western Conference or the NBA Playoffs.
With under six minutes remaining in the game’s second quarter, the Nuggets connected on a three-pointer. That seemed to prompt some additional chatter from Luka, who turned towards one of the referees after the play as his team was inbounding the ball.
It’s unclear what the Lakers superstar said during the incident, but it prompted the ref to quickly issue a technical foul to Luka, who seemed especially confused about what had occurred.
This could be problematic as it marks Luka’s 14th technical foul this season. One more technical will result in him receiving an automatic one-game suspension, keeping him out of action for the Lakers.
While speaking on ESPN about the situation, veteran NBA reporter Tim McMahon, who has covered Luka with the Dallas Mavericks, said that the technical was likely a result of him continuing to complain to refs about a previous play. He suggested that this is a constant issue for him in games, complaining about plays instead of getting back on defense.
“I don’t want to hear how much Luka cares about winning, if he’s gonna continue to prioritize whining instead of running back on defense. He’s putting his team in a bad spot, over, and over, and over again,” he contended.
McMahon also indicated that the league “tends to be more lenient” when it comes to rescinding technicals that Luka receives as he nears suspension. However, time will tell whether they are lenient in this case or side with the referee, which could hurt the Lakers even more by preventing Luka from playing in a game.