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The NBA rescinds Luka Dončić’s technical from the Heat game, dropping him back to one in eight games and further from the 16-tech suspension line
The league reviewed and rescinded Luka Dončić’s second-quarter technical from the Lakers’ win over Miami, cutting his season total from two to one. Why the count matters: 16 means an automatic one-game suspension.
In this article
The NBA has rescinded the technical foul Luka Dončić drew in the Lakers’ 138-117 win over the Miami Heat on Monday, Nov. 2, bringing his season total back to one technical in eight games. The league announced the decision on Tuesday, Nov. 3, after reviewing the play. The foul came with 1:12 left in the second quarter, when Dončić clapped in reaction to a call.
The ruling matters because of the number 16. A player who is assessed his 16th technical foul of the regular season is automatically suspended for one game and fined $5,000, and Dončić has reached that line before. He did it in four of his eight NBA seasons, including last year with the Lakers, when he sat out a 120-101 win over the Wizards on March 30. He had three straight seasons with 15 technicals and 13 in 2024-25.
What happened on the floor
Dončić was whistled after he clapped in reaction to a call. On the broadcast he said: “I clapped. That’s a technical? Come on now. If it was anybody else, you know it’s not a technical.” Klay Thompson made the free throw, which cut the Lakers’ lead to 72-67, and that point stands. Dončić declined to discuss the call after the game, in which he scored 42 points with 13 assists and seven rebounds.
It was his second technical in his last three games, after none in his first four. Before the season he set himself a goal on the subject. “This season, I’m trying to not get techs,” he said on Oct. 21. With the ruling, he is back to one, and the Lakers, 6-2, play at Sacramento on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET (5 a.m. Thursday in Cairo).
Where the technical count stands
Two players already have three technicals this season: Golden State’s Draymond Green, who was ejected after consecutive technicals in Monday’s win over Phoenix, as we reported in our game story on Curry’s 34 points, and Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. We covered the league’s flopping technicals in our running flop tracker and covered Dončić’s 42-point night in our Lakers-Heat story.
The table shows what one technical in eight games means over a full season. It is simple arithmetic on an 82-game schedule, not a forecast, since technicals come in clusters and the league can still rescind them.
| Technicals after 8 games | Pace over 82 games | Against the 16 line |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (after the ruling) | 10.25 | 5.75 short |
| 2 (before the ruling) | 20.5 | 4.5 over |
| 3 (Green and Smith Jr.) | 30.75 | 14.75 over |
Under the same rule, every two technicals after the 16th bring one more game of suspension, so the count is worth tracking all year. A rescinded foul is not just a paperwork change for a player in Dončić’s position: it moves the date on which a suspension could arrive. We will follow league rulings on our Around the league page.
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