The NBA fined the Dallas Mavericks $750,000 for what it describes as “conduct detrimental to the league” for the Mavericks decision to rest its starters and key rotation players against the Chicago Bulls last week.
Dallas decided to sit Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Josh Green, and Christian Wood against the Bulls, with Luka Doncic only playing one quarter because the home game was a promo night for Slovenia, with many Slovenian fans in attendance to see Luka.
The Mavericks were technically alive for post-season play at that moment, but only by the loosest definition of the term — the Mavericks had to beat the Bulls Friday, then the Spurs on Sunday while also needing the Oklahoma City Thunder to beat a Memphis Grizzlies team that had locked up the two seed and therefore would be resting all its key players.