NBA investigating Mavericks for sitting key players with playoff hopes alive

The NBA wants to know why the Dallas Mavericks held out several key players in their next-to-last game of the season, even while the team still had a mathematical chance of making the play-in tournament.

NBA officials opened an investigation Saturday into the Mavericks’ decision-making surrounding Friday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, in which Dallas sat Kyrie Irving for the entire game and Luka Doncic for most of the contest. The Mavericks blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and lost, getting eliminated from postseason consideration.

That outcome also could help ensure that Dallas has a top-10 draft pick this summer – and with it, potentially a 4.5% chance of winning the lottery and getting the opportunity to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama.

“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 motivations behind those actions,” league spokesman Mike Bass said.

Potential penalties are unclear, though NBA commissioner Adam Silver made clear before the season began that the league wouldn’t tolerate any obvious attempts at tanking.

“I know that many of our NBA teams are salivating at the notion that potentially through our lottery that they could get (Wembanyama), so they should all still compete very hard next season,” Silver said in October.

Dallas coach Jason Kidd said before the game that the decision to sit players was made by “the organization”, and referenced it being made by his bosses – owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison – after the game as well.

Dallas had Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr, Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Christian Wood all