Five flopping technicals in one night: Ja Morant says he will appeal after three are called in the last six minutes of Blazers-Lakers

Referees called five flopping technical fouls on Tuesday night, Oct. 27, more than half of the nine called on the floor so far this NBA season. Three of them came in a span of 90 seconds late in Portland’s 136-129 win over the Lakers, and Trail Blazers guard Ja Morant said afterward that he will appeal his.

The other two came in Boston’s 125-124 overtime win over Brooklyn, on the Nets’ Julius Randle and the Celtics’ Baylor Scheierman. Flopping is one of the league’s officiating Areas of Focus for 2026-27, and Tuesday was the busiest night of the crackdown so far.

Three calls in 90 seconds in Los Angeles

Portland led 120-116 with 5:06 left when Toumani Camara was called for the first flop. Luka Dončić missed the free throw that comes with a flopping technical. With 3:49 left and Portland up 123-120, the officials stopped play after a Lakers possession had ended and called a flop on Morant, who had been bumped in the chest by Austin Reaves on a drive and stumbled backward with his hands raised. Reaves made the free throw. Thirteen seconds of game time later, after Damian Lillard made a three for a 126-121 lead, Ziaire Williams of the Lakers was called for a flop, and Lillard made the free throw.

Game	Time	Player	Score at the call
Trail Blazers at Lakers	4th, 5:06	Toumani Camara (POR)	POR 120-116
Trail Blazers at Lakers	4th, 3:49	Ja Morant (POR)	POR 123-120
Trail Blazers at Lakers	4th, 3:36	Ziaire Williams (LAL)	POR 126-121
Nets at Celtics	2nd, 1:18	Julius Randle (BKN)	BKN 59-53
Nets at Celtics	3rd, 1:01	Baylor Scheierman (BOS)	BOS 81-79

Veteran referee Scott Foster made the call on Morant, and television cameras caught him acting out Morant’s reaction while the guard argued with him. The two teams combined to shoot 71 free throws.

What Morant and Micah Nori said

“I just showed my hands and took a bump in my chest,” Morant said after scoring a season-high 23 points. “It ain’t like I fell. I just kept going backwards. It is what it is. I’ll try to appeal it. I think it’s like a $2,000 [fine].”

Morant said the Blazers had changed how they defended drives because most of the Lakers’ free throws were coming that way. “We tried to adjust to just show our hands and take the bump in our chest to show [the referees that the Lakers] initiated the contact,” he said. “But we were still on the short end of the stick.”

Portland coach Micah Nori pointed out that only “27 flops [were] called last year in 2,000 games total,” and then gave the league a dry compliment. “Good job by the NBA,” Nori said. “Point of emphasis. Great job. There were [71] free throws. We almost got past 2 a.m. on the East Coast for the [end of the] game. Sorry to keep you all here so long.”

The league has not said whether it will rescind Morant’s technical. Portland, 3-0, hosts his former team, the unbeaten Grizzlies, on Thursday night, as listed in today’s NBA schedule.

Nine flopping technicals in nine nights

A flopping technical called during a game gives the other team one free throw. It is separate from the postgame fines the league office hands out after reviewing video of plays the referees let go. According to the play-by-play of the season’s first 68 games, from Oct. 20 through Oct. 28, referees have now called nine flopping technicals on the floor. None were called in Wednesday’s 12 games.

Date	Game	Player
Oct. 21	Timberwolves at Heat	Pelle Larsson (MIA)
Oct. 24	Wizards at Bulls	Trae Young (WAS)
Oct. 24	Wizards at Bulls	Matas Buzelis (CHI)
Oct. 25	Raptors at Timberwolves	Terrence Shannon Jr. (MIN)
Oct. 27	Nets at Celtics	Julius Randle (BKN)
Oct. 27	Nets at Celtics	Baylor Scheierman (BOS)
Oct. 27	Trail Blazers at Lakers	Toumani Camara (POR)
Oct. 27	Trail Blazers at Lakers	Ja Morant (POR)
Oct. 27	Trail Blazers at Lakers	Ziaire Williams (LAL)

The league has also issued four postgame flopping fines of $2,000 each, starting with Paul George’s on opening night. Williams is now the first player this season to be both fined after a game and called for a flop during one: he was fined for a play in the Lakers’ Oct. 25 win in Utah, as we covered in our roundup of league discipline. No new postgame fines have been announced since Monday.

What Tuesday{A}s Last Two Minute reports found

The league’s reports on Tuesday’s two close games do not cover the flops, which all came before the final two minutes of regulation. The report on the Lakers-Blazers game found no errors in the last two minutes.

The report on Boston’s win over Brooklyn, decided by Jayson Tatum’s overtime buzzer-beater, found two missed calls, one in each team’s favor. With 1:25.1 left in regulation and Boston up 111-109, Derrick White should have been called for a shooting foul for hitting Michael Porter Jr.’s arm on a three he missed. With 30.5 seconds left, Brooklyn’s Chaney Johnson should have been called for an offensive foul for sticking out his left arm into Paul George on a screen. The report also says a Nets coach’s challenge in overtime, which turned a foul on Day’Ron Sharpe into a loose-ball foul on Luka Garza with 6.1 seconds left, was decided correctly.

Court iQ changes another shot

Replay officials used Court iQ, the league’s tracking system for checking a shooter’s feet on the three-point line, again on Wednesday. A fourth-quarter jumper by Dallas’ Caleb Martin in the Mavericks’ 120-96 win over Oklahoma City was changed from a three to a two.

During Q4 of tonight's #OKCatDAL game, Replay Center officials utilized @NBA Court iQ to overturn the initial ruling of a 3-point field goal by Dallas' Caleb Martin to a 2-point field goal. pic.twitter.com/wX7gNudpzo

— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) October 29, 2026

That is the seventh change the league’s officiating account has announced this season: four from three points to two and three from two to three. Reports on Wednesday’s close games are due later on Thursday. Follow every league-wide story on our Around the league page.