DETROIT — The NBA rescinded Luka Doncic’s 16th technical foul of the season on Sunday afternoon, concurring with the Lakers’ appeal following the third-quarter incident Saturday in the Lakers’ 105-104 victory against the Orlando Magic.
Doncic avoids a one-game suspension, automatically assessed after a 16th technical foul, for Monday night’s game against the Eastern Conference’s first-place team, the Detroit Pistons (51-19).
Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze also had his technical foul rescinded, wiping both players’ slates clean. After a heated verbal altercation with Bitadze during the third quarter while Doncic shot free throws, officials deemed the pair of players’ behavior unsportsmanlike and called offsetting technical fouls.
According to Doncic after the game, Bitadze was trash talking the Lakers star in Serbian and went too far, bringing up Doncic’s family. Bitadze said he was only responding to Doncic, who he claimed had initiated the trash talk in Serbian, a language the Georgian big man understands from having playing in Serbia earlier in his career.
Although Doncic said he was standing up for himself during the vulgar back and forth with Bitadze, he also understood that he needs to do better to avoid picking up further technical fouls.
“I know I got to do better,” Doncic said Saturday. “My teammates, I know they have my back, so I let them down today.”
In both 2022 and 2023, Doncic picked up his 16th foul. The NBA, however, rescinded both marks which allowed Doncic to skirt an automatic one-game suspension. Sunday now marks the third time Doncic has come out on the positive side of a technical foul appeal.
While Doncic will be available for the Lakers on Monday, the Pistons will notably be without guard Marcus Sasser (right hip strain) and star guard Cade Cunningham, who reportedly suffered a collapsed lung on a play during a game on Tuesday.
With Doncic on the floor, the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak, their longest since the 2019-2020 season, could survive the six-game trip, ending on Wednesday against the Indiana Pacers.
Across the nine-game stretch – which coincidentally began after the Lakers (46-25) lost to the Denver Nuggets on March 5 and Doncic picked up his 15th technical foul – Doncic has averaged 40.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 7.4 assists and 2.4 steals while shooting 50.2 percent from the field.
To call Doncic the hottest player in the NBA would be an understatement. Since the All-Star break, Doncic has led the league in scoring (34.9 points per game), has the top 3-point percentage for players averaging eight 1/2-or-more 3-pointers per game (41.3%), and ranks in the top 10 in steals with two per game. He’s produced two 50-plus point games in the winning streak, most recently scoring 60 against the Miami Heat on Thursday.
“It just seems like he’s playing clear headed, and the shot making stands out,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Forward Rui Hachimura, who exited Saturday’s game late in the third quarter and did not play in the fourth, told Kyodo News, a Japanese media outlet, that he hurt his right calf against the Magic.
On the Lakers’ availability report Sunday, Hachimura (right calf soreness) along with guard Marcus Smart (right ankle soreness) and post Maxi Kleber (lumbar back strain) are listed as questionable to play against the Pistons.
Smart awkwardly fell during Saturday’s game in the second quarter, exiting for a handful of minutes to the locker room, before returning for the final minutes of the first half with a wrap around his right thigh.