SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton ripped off his gray suit jacket as he stormed off the court seconds after being ejected with a double-technical foul.
It was one of seven technical fouls called in the game, six against the Lakers, who lost to the Sacramento Kings, 116-92, for their seventh consecutive loss. The loss dropped the Lakers to 10-17, while the Kings improved to 9-15. The game evened the season series between the two teams.
The Lakers got double-figure scoring from Luol Deng, D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, and Lou Williams. Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins had 31 points, after scoring 28 against the Lakers in the teams' first meeting of the season. Kings guard Darren Collison had 20 points and made seven of 11 shots.
But the most notable statistic of the game involved the number of technical fouls assessed.
Julius Randle, Russell, Williams and associate head coach Brian Shaw, who took over once Walton was ejected, were also hit with technical fouls.
Cousins had Sacramento's only technical foul of the game, but his was assessed in the second half, long after his most eventful moments of the game.
Those came with 4:14 left in the first quarter, when a contentious battle, leftover from the Lakers and Kings first meeting, flashed. In that first meeting, Cousins and Randle, both Kentucky products, met after the game ended, and had to be separated.
On Monday night, Cousins grabbed Randle's arms from behind, causing him to fall to the ground and then Cousins fell down also.
Furious that no foul had been called, Walton stormed all the way to the middle of the court and unleashed a furious tirade on the officials. As he approached mid-court, Clarkson held him back, and rookie forward Brandon Ingram later joined, but Walton's words still reached the official. He assessed Walton two technical fouls and added one for Randle on the same play.
