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Tim MacMahon, ESPN Staff Writer
DALLAS — Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic’s frustration Wednesday night resulted in him being called for a technical foul, a heckling fan getting ejected and Dallas coach Jason Kidd calling out his team for losing focus for the second time this week.
Doncic’s technical foul and his request for the heckler to be ejected bookended the Mavs’ third-quarter meltdown during a 132-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns at the American Airlines Center. Dallas was outscored 43-20 in the quarter, when Suns star Devin Booker scored 22 of his 46 points, as Phoenix turned a competitive game into a blowout.
Doncic reacted to the heckler, a Suns fan who wore a Booker “El Valle” jersey while sitting in the second row behind the midcourt press area, late in the the third quarter. The man shouted: “Luka, you’re tired! Get your ass on the treadmill!”
Doncic, who was walking near midcourt, turned around and stared at the fan for a few seconds. As Doncic jogged back on defense, he waved toward Mavs vice president of security Brian Kinzig, pointed at the fan and gestured that he wanted him ejected. Doncic approached Kinzig on the court during the break between quarters, pointed at the fan again and requested for him to be ejected. The fan left without further incident after being approached by an arena staffer.
Doncic took umbrage with the reporting of his request for the fan’s ejection.
“He was cursing me the whole first half, too,” said Doncic, who had 34 points, eight rebounds and nine assists in the loss, which Mavs co-star Kyrie Irving missed due to a sprained right thumb.
Asked why he didn’t ask for the fan to be ejected during the first half, Doncic said: “Because I never would eject a fan. They paid for tickets, but I had enough. It’s a little bit of frustration.”
It was the seventh straight win for the Suns (26-18), who have climbed to fifth in the Western Conference standings. The Mavs (24-20) have lost five of seven to fall to eighth place.
Doncic also frequently vented his frustration at the officiating crew Wednesday, getting called for a technical foul for the second consecutive game. He has eight this season, not including one that was rescinded by the league office, putting him halfway to the threshold for an automatic suspension.
After the Suns sliced a 16-point deficit to one in the final 6:05 of the second quarter, Doncic picked up the technical while limping to the locker room, having “twisted” the right ankle that he sprained earlier this month.
“He had complained multiple times and was asked to stop prior to that,” crew chief David Guthrie told a pool reporter. “He did not stop but continued his complaining, and again as he was leaving the floor at halftime he yelled and complained at the officials again.”
After Monday’s loss to the Boston Celtics, Kidd called out his team for becoming “a little bit frustrated with the officiating, and we lost our focus,” but he did not single out Doncic. Two nights later, Kidd said the problem is “a trend here unfortunately” and specifically discussed Doncic’s career-long tendency to become distracted due to his anger with referees.
How can Kidd and the Mavs help Doncic manage that issue?
“That’s a great question. Don’t have an answer,” Kidd said, noting that Doncic had gone several games without getting a technical before the home loss to the Celtics. “We’ll talk to him about it. He’s a competitor. He likes to have discussions with the referees, but he has to be better. And as a group, we have to be better.”
For the second straight game, Doncic said he did not think a loss of composure was a factor in the Mavs’ loss. The Mavs were called for four individual technical fouls, including two by forward Grant Williams, who was involved in a first-quarter shoving match with Phoenix’s Kevin Durant and Jusuf Nurkic and ejected with 8:46 remaining in the third quarter after he “overtly yelled and gestured directly at the official also using profanity,” according to Guthrie.
“As teachers of this game, we have to show them the conduct that will get you the call,” Kidd said. “Stars were getting calls in the fourth quarter, not after the jump ball in the first 30 seconds of the game. The game has changed, but some things haven’t changed. And the officials understand if you’re going to complain, you’re not going to get calls. That’s just the way it goes. But if you’re going to complain, it’s only going to come back to haunt you, and it might not get you in that game, but it’ll get you in another game. They’re human, and so that’s just part of the game that the Mavs as a group, we have to work on.”
Booker made the free throw at the start of the third quarter to tie the score. Bradley Beal’s driving layup on the ensuing possession gave the Suns the lead for good. Phoenix built its lead to 28 by the final minute of the quarter, as Booker made 9 of his 11 shots from the floor during the frame.
“Book went off,” Doncic said. “He couldn’t miss. He destroyed us.”
Booker, who has a personal rivalry with Doncic that dates to the Mavs’ upset of the Suns in the 2021 West semifinals, saw coverage of the Suns fan’s interaction with Doncic on social media after the game. He grinned when it was mentioned that the man was wearing a Booker jersey.
“I appreciate the support,” Booker told ESPN. “I don’t know what he said. I hope he didn’t cross too many lines, and I’ll be getting his information. If you can find it, let me know.”
Booker, who was 17-of-23 from the floor, said it “depends on the situation” when asked whether he intended to give the man tickets to a future Suns game.
“I hope what he did wasn’t too disrespectful, but I know in these crowded environments — we played a playoff series here — I’ve heard countless numbers of things,” Booker told ESPN. “You usually don’t hear it at home. I’m sure that was a different thing for Luka, but it’s part of the game. I usually don’t let what I hear bother me.”