Dwight Howard’s trip to Los Angeles plagued with technicals, ejections

LOS ANGELES — Dwight Howard has had better two-game stretches.

The 76ers center is one of the team’s veteran leaders, who comes with a championship pedigree. Yet, he’s been ejected in both of the Sixers’ games at the Staples Center.

On Thursday, he was tossed after the first quarter of the Sixers’ 109-101 victory over the Lakers. Then Howard was ejected with 10 minutes, 35 seconds remaining in Saturday’s 122-112 loss to the Clippers. He received two technicals in both games, leading to his exits.

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On Saturday, the Sixers (32-14) had four technicals. Along with Howard, Seth Curry received one 4 seconds before intermission, and Tobias Harris got his with 6:23 left in the game.

Following the game, Doc Rivers asked if he would have to talk to Howard about the technical fouls.

“I think he is a pro,” Rivers said. “He understands that. We always talk about technical fouls as a group. We just did right after the game. I didn’t single out Dwight honestly. I just said as a team we had [four], which means more than one guy was frustrated. It means a lot of guys were frustrated tonight and a good defense will do that.”

Perhaps, but Howard leads the NBA with 13 technical fouls. Any player who is assessed with 16 unsportsmanlike technical fouls in the regular season is suspended one game.

Right now, it’s vital that Howard stays on the court. Joel Embiid, the league’s MVP candidate, is sidelined with a left knee bone bruise. Meanwhile, the Sixers traded reserve centers Tony Bradley to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Vincent Poirier to the New York Knicks prior to March 25 trade deadline.

As a result of Howard’s ejection, the Sixers played the final three quarters without any centers on Thursday.

Howard and Lakers reserve Montrezl Harrell received double technicals with 1:08 left in the quarter. Harrell shoved Howard away from him while trying to get position for an inbounds play. The two were physical for the rest of the quarter. Howard received his second technical and was ejected for walking into Harrell after the quarter concluded.

“I just thought it was a very selfish play,” Rivers said after Thursday’s game of Howard’s action that led to the ejection. “You got one tech. You can’t get another. We just have to have better discipline. I get it. I know there’s a lot of emotion. But, we had one center on our team and he got thrown out. So I was not very happy with that one.”

On Saturday, Howard was called for an offensive foul with 10:41 left to play. Six seconds later, he received a technical foul for saying something to an official.

“During the next possession he ran all the way down the floor to the calling official and pointed at the calling official and yelled at him and that’s why the first technical foul was called,” crew chief Tony Brothers said.

Howard said something to another official, leading to a second technical and was tossed.

“He said something derogatory to the official he was talking to about the official who called the first technical foul,” Brothers said.

It was a bad two-game stretch for the 17-year veteran, who must maintain his composure for the Sixers to be successful.