Luka Doncic was ejected in the fourth quarter for a second technical foul as the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a 136-120 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder – who had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander top-scoring with 42 points.
The Lakers star scored 23 points before getting tossed from the game on Tuesday night after match officials presumed he was thrash-talking one of them when the banter was directed at a fan in one of the court-side seats.
Following Doncic’s ejection, OKC went on a 29-12 run to close-out the game and seal the win, with Tony Brothers stating afterwards that the Lakers man was looking “directly at an official and used vulgar language.”
Lakers were facing OKC in the second of back-to-back games against the West’s leading team, but were unable to make it two wins in two, leaving LeBron James and co needing two more wins from their remaining three regular-season games to guarantee third seed in the West.
Other games saw the Los Angeles Clippers beat the San Antonio Spurs 122-117, Golden State Warriors dismissed the Phoenix Suns 133-95 while the Memphis Grizzlies got a 124-100 win over the Charlotte Hornets.