DALLAS — Seated toward the end of the Mavericks’ bench in jeans, a navy blue hoodie and his white Luka 1s, Luka Doncic ended a couple of his streaks while watching his team flounder against the Houston Rockets.
Doncic didn’t play for the first time in Dallas’ first 14 games, a well-earned night of rest during the second game of a back-to-back against the NBA’s worst team.
And Doncic didn’t draw a technical foul for the first time in a week.
Doncic will return to action Friday night when his team starts a two-game miniseries against the Denver Nuggets, but the Mavericks hope their 23-year-old superstar’s near-constant barking at officials won’t also return to his current pace for a technical foul suspension — and then some — by mid-season.
“It’s something that we have to talk about,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think he understands where he’s at. He’s always been good about getting up to that number, not going past that number.”
Approaching the one-quarter mark of the season, Doncic leads the NBA in several statistical categories.
Scoring: 34.4 points per game.
Usage rate: 37.7%.
Technical fouls: five through his 13 games, tied with All-Stars Kevin Durant and Draymond Green.
Since 2020, Doncic has compiled the most technical fouls of any player (53), one more than Green.
For those unfamiliar or forgetful since Doncic’s run-in with too many technical fouls last year, the NBA rules are as follows:
— A one-game suspension after a player’s 16th technical foul in the regular season.
— Another one-game suspension for every two regular-season techs after 16.
— Technical foul counts restart in the playoffs, with a suspension every seven.
The NBA also fines players $2,000 a tech for their first five, increasing the per-foul amount by $1,000 every five to a max of $5,000 a tech for No. 16 and beyond.
Doncic can absorb the expense better this year, the first on his $207 million rookie supermax contract extension that gave him about a $27 million raise from his $10 million salary in 2021-22.
But his pace for a mid-season suspension — and then some — will be costly to the Mavericks, ever reliant on their heliocentric superstar.
At five techs through the team’s 14 games, Doncic is on track to hit 16 in the Mavericks’ 45th game of the season. If he continues averaging one tech every 2.8 games, Doncic would face another technical-foul suspension about six more times in the regular season.
Doncic has recorded his five techs this season — Oct. 19 in Phoenix, Nov. 4 vs. Toronto, Nov. 10 in Washington, Nov. 12 vs. Portland and Nov. 15 vs. the Clippers — faster than any of his first five in previous campaigns.
Last year — when Doncic drew 18 in the regular season but had two rescinded to avoid a suspension in the finale — his fifth technical foul came Dec. 7 in his 19th game.
A couple times this season, Doncic has thought officials were quick to their whistles for his minor indiscretions.”I was trying to pass the ball to the ref, and he was right there,” Doncic explained after his tech against the Suns. “The ball, if he would’ve put his hands here [raises his arms up] it would’ve gone to him, so I don’t know. I didn’t expect a technical for that. I can’t pass it on target every time.”
But Tuesday against the Clippers, he didn’t hesitate when asked about his interaction.
“I deserved that one,” Doncic said of his barking at the refs. “I talked to [official] Curtis [Blair] after he called it, and we agreed. I deserved that one.”
While the Mavericks haven’t prepared playing without Doncic for non-rest purposes, they have considered strategies for the defensive sets he misses while padding his burgeoning reputation for arguing every perceived no-call on offense.
Kidd often has his defense run short-handed drills in practice to work on withstanding five-on-four deficits when one player — most often Doncic, slow to stand after a drive or taking an extra moment to holler for a whistle — isn’t back in time.
“Not just because of Luka talking to the officials or on the floor, but it’s just something that happens in this league,” Kidd said. “We’ve got to be able to zone it up and hold it until that guy gets back into the play.”
