The Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic were involved in a heated clash on Saturday night, which ended in Luke Kennard hitting a game-winning shot to give L.A. a 105-104 win.
In the midst of the contest, Lakers star Luka Doncic picked up his 16th technical foul of the season when he got into it with Magic center Goga Bitadze. Doncic was chirping at Bitadze as the two were running down the floor in the third quarter.
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Doncic shed some light on the incident.
“I’m definitely hoping [it is rescinded],” he told reporters after the game, via ESPN. “Obviously, I let my team down getting that last tech. But honestly, I wasn’t trying to. [Bitadze] said at the free throw, he would f— my whole family. And at some point, this is a basketball court. At some point, I just can’t stand it. I got to stand up for myself. But I know I got to do better.
“My teammates, I know they have my back, so I let them down today. But hopefully, it gets rescinded.”
Bitadze told ESPN and the Orlando Sentinel that Doncic cursed at him in Serbian and he just repeated the same words at him. He explained that Doncic said something about his mother and he repeated the same thing back to him.
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“I have all the respect for Luka and what he has done,” Bitadze said. “And I really respect everybody’s family. Where I come from, it’s really sacred and we really respect each other’s families, and I would never directly say that. He just said some inappropriate things in the Serbian language, which, I played in Serbia, I understand.
“I don’t know if he knew I understood what he said. So, I just said it back. And it was nothing toward his family or anybody. His family, I really, truly respect them.”
If Doncic doesn’t win his appeal, he will be forced to sit out one game as discipline for hitting the 16-technical-foul threshold.
The Lakers are 46-25 and No. 3 in the Western Conference.
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