The Mavericks may end the regular season without their best player.
Luka Doncic committed his 16th technical foul of the season on Friday night, triggering an automatic one-game ban that will see him miss Sunday’s final against Spurs unless the league office nullifies the foul. The Mavericks (51-30) are still playing for seeding, with a halfgame between them in fourth place and the Warriors (51-29), who are third in the West.
Doncic was unhappy with a no-call on his halffield shot on the first-quarter buzzer when he thought Portland’s Elijah Hughes undercut him from behind. After protesting to referee Tom Washington, Doncic went to Crew Chief Tony Brothers, who provided the technical briefing.
“If you ask me, I think it should be 100 percent undone because it wasn’t tech at all,” Doncic told reporters after the 128-78 win. “No warning, no nothing. I just asked him, ‘Why isn’t that a phone call?’ Hopefully it will be like that [rescinded]so I can play on Sunday.”
The win gave Dallas home field advantage in the first round, although the Mavericks naturally want as high a seeding as possible.
“At the end of the quarter [Doncic] took a shot and he felt like he had been fouled,” Brothers said in a pool report. “He started complaining to each of the officers. When I walked up to a table he was 15ft in the back and still complaining so he got a technique for constantly complaining.
The brothers said Doncic did not use profanity. However, it’s not the first time the 23-year-old has struggled with technical fouls.
Doncic was called up for 17 of them last season, avoiding only one suspension as two were overturned. He had also picked one up earlier this season.
“I honestly don’t know why I got a technician,” Doncic said. “I asked him, ‘Why isn’t that a foul?’ and he just got me a technician. So I don’t really know how I got a technician there.”
https://nypost.com/2022/04/09/luka-doncic-faces-one-game-suspension-after-technical-foul-against-blazers/ Luka Doncic faces a one-game suspension for a technical foul on the Blazers