NBA to probe Mavs over sidelined players

LOS ANGELES

The Dallas Mavericks’ abrupt decision to hold out five players from a game on April 7, when they still had a chance of reaching the NBA play-in tournament, will be investigated, the league said on April 8.

“The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivation behind those actions,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement.

League rules include measures against “tanking” which stipulate an owner may not “attempt to lose or control the score of any game.”

Although Dallas’s chances of making the play-in had dwindled dramatically in recent days, they still had a shot at the Western Conference 10th seed, the final berth in the four-team play-in for the last two playoff berths.

So it raised eyebrows around the league when the Mavs, who had listed no players as questionable or doubtful on early injury reports for the game, declared late Friday morning that five players would sit out.

That included regular starters Kyrie Irving, who has been playing through foot pain, and Tim Hardaway Jr. as well as key reserves Josh Green, Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood.

Shortly before the game, head coach Jason Kidd said that star Luka Doncic would only play the first quarter.

Kidd told reporters before the game that the decision had come from Cuban and the Mavs’ front office, while players and coaches had “all said that we want to have the opportunity to find a way to get in [to the post-season].”

“We were going to play until told otherwise,” Kidd said. “And today is the day that we’ve been told that we’re going to do something different.”