{"id":136264,"date":"2025-04-25T17:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136264"},"modified":"2025-04-25T17:57:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T21:57:35","slug":"luka-doncic-tony-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/25\/luka-doncic-tony-brothers\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka\u2019s Worst Nightmare Will Officiate Pivotal Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers will meet tonight for a pivotal Game 3 of the NBA playoffs. Their first-round matchup has given fans plenty of excitement. But now, it seems like things are not looking good for the Lakers in Game 3. The NBA has appointed Tony Brothers as chief referee, and he seems to have personal feelings for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Luka\u2019s Worst Nightmare Tony Brothers Will Officiate Pivotal Game 3<\/h2>\n<p>Luka and Tony Brothers have had plenty of arguments over the years. Their history dates back to the time Doncic was wearing a Mavs jersey. Aside from Brothers, the officiating crew for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/25\/timberwolves-lakers-best-bets-game-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Game 3<\/a> will consist of Mark Lindsay as the referee and Gediminias Petratis as the umpire. But Brothers will be the crew chief for the pivotal showdown. Will he eject Luka again? We will have to wait and see. But Lakers fans are not happy with this decision by the league.<\/p>\n<h3>Luka Doncic&#8217;s History With\u00a0Tony Brothers<\/h3>\n<p>Just a few weeks ago, Tony Brothers ejected Luka Doncic for talking to a fan. It was one of the most bizarre technical fouls in recent history. After the game, Brothers explained Luka\u2019s first and second technical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/nba\/tony-brothers-bluntly-explains-luka-doncic-s-technical-fouls-ejection\/ar-AA1CBFqP\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fouls<\/a>. For the first technical, he said, \u201cHe directed profanity at a game official.\u201d As for the second, Brothers explained, \u201cHe looked directly at an official and used vulgar language.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Luka makes a shot, claps back at a fan, and the ref ejects him because he thought he was talking to him \ud83d\udc80\ud83d\udc80<a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AbHcmtTu5b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/AbHcmtTu5b<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RTNBA\/status\/1909791431314546974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That was not the first time Luka and Brothers had gotten into each other\u2019s faces. During last year\u2019s Conference Semifinals, Luka told the Oklahoma City Thunder coach, \u201cThey want a Game 7 for you guys.\u201d It was a clear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.essentiallysports.com\/nba-active-basketball-news-rattled-by-tony-brothers-luka-doncic-drops-shocking-accusations-on-nba-refs-to-taunt-oklahoma-city-thunder-head-coach-at-game-six-nba-playoffs-twenty-twenty-four\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">indication<\/a> of Luka commenting after Tony made a few foul calls against the Mavericks. Going further back, during the 2021-22 regular season, it was Brothers who gave Luka his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/nba\/comments\/tzi299\/macmahon_luka_doncic_just_got_td_up_between\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">16th technical<\/a> for the season. As a result, Luka missed the season finale in 2022.<\/p>\n<h3>The Importance of Game 3<\/h3>\n<p>Teams that take a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landofbasketball.com\/statistics\/playoff_series_2_1.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2-1 lead<\/a> win the series 80 percent of the time. But there is no denying that the trend has continued in the last several years. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/23\/lakers-luka-doncic-lebron-james-timberwolves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Game 3 <\/a>is all about adjustments. After two games where teams feel each other, Game 3 is pivotal. The next one is Game 5 if the teams are tied 2-2 after four games. For the Lakers, their chances of winning Game 3 are lowered by the mere fact that the main referee will be Tony Brothers.<\/p>\n<h3>Fans Are Already Calling a Timberwolves Win<\/h3>\n<p>Lakers fans are already all over <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LakeShowYo\/status\/1915833295994318911\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">social media<\/a> commenting about the NBA\u2019s decision to put Brothers as the main referee in a pivotal Game 3. Comments range from \u201cLuka is going to get called for a foul during warmups\u201d to \u201cPut your parlay on the Wolves. We all know who\u2019s winning now\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The last time Tony Brothers officiated Lakers vs TWolves in Minnesota <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/clrOQ0cAI9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/clrOQ0cAI9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; \ud83c\udfad (@MaskedInLA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MaskedInLA\/status\/1915847426134659161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Brothers also has a history of making controversial calls when officiating a Lakers\u2013Timberwolves game. That was in December 2023, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> was still in a Lakers uniform. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-04-25_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> was furious, pointing at the screen of what happened and hoping that the referees would reverse their call of a two-pointer to a three.<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers will meet tonight for a pivotal Game 3 of the NBA playoffs. Their first-round matchup has given fans plenty of excitement. But now, it seems like things are not looking good for the Lakers in Game 3. The NBA has appointed Tony Brothers as chief referee, and he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":136277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,21,62,3],"tags":[240,38,1133],"class_list":["post-136264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-news","tag-anthony-davis","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136264"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136282,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136264\/revisions\/136282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}