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What could've been a late nomination for Game of the Year turned into a referee show. The Oklahoma City Thunder's 136-120 win over the Los Angeles Lakers was headlined by Luka Doncic's ejection. His absence down the stretch was felt as his squad didn't have an elite shot-maker to counter Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
After Doncic drilled a pull-up jumper, his conversation with a fan resulted in a second technical foul. Despite pleading with the referees, he eventually left the court with a little under eight minutes left.
The Lakers held a 108-107 lead when Doncic was ejected. After that, the Thunder went on a 13-4 run over the next three minutes to put this one away. The controversial move to toss him out warranted a pool report from Crew Chief Tony Brothers.
Here's what the Thunder said about Doncic's ejection. The West's top seed came away with an impressive win after being blown out by the Lakers on Sunday:
Mark Daigneault
On Doncic's ejection: "JT Orr, the referee that threw him out, gave me a tech in Sacramento for a very mild comment. I don't know exactly what was said but I can also guarantee it wasn't as mild as what I said. It was good to see him hold the line on the respect for the game standard from situation to situation, team to team. I hope the league has those guys' back when they do that but I don't know if that's the case because it looks like an outlier when somebody T's a guy. There should be a line. They cross it, there should be a technical and you get what you tolerate. I give that crew a lot of credit for the way they managed it."
On the line: "They define it. Follow through on what you define."
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
On Doncic's ejection: "I have no clue. I don't know. Ref was saying something. Obviously, the ref heard something he didn't like. Tech'd him up. I don't know what he said."
Jalen Williams
On Doncic's ejection: "You guys would probably see it on Twitter. I don't know."
On staying levelheaded with the referees: "Mark be telling me to be quiet so I stay quiet. JT gave me an early warning and I left it alone the rest of the game. That's the dialogue with that. There's a lot of back and forth at the officials tonight. Usually, when you kinda sense that, you try and just leave it alone. They're human and when you have 10 guys, five on each team, bark at you the whole game it just becomes a point where they don't want to listen to you anymore, which is fair. Tonight, I thought I did a good job. I just left it alone, at least down the stretch."
Isaiah Hartenstein
On Doncic's ejection: "You guys probably saw it better than we did. We're just focused on the game. There was a lot of talking throughout the game. Ref did what he thought was right."
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Here's what Thunder said on Luka Doncic's ejection in win over Lakers
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