NEW YORK — The end of the regular season can be a slog in the NBA as teams prepare for the playoffs while others jostle and fight for playoff positioning and the play-in tournament.
Then there are the tanking teams looking for the best draft positioning possible for the lottery.
The Dallas Mavericks have caught heat for sitting Kyrie Irving and other rotation players while playing Luka Doncic for only the first quarter in their loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday. The loss eliminated the Mavericks from the playoffs, and the NBA is investigating the Mavs’ actions.
The Philadelphia 76ers are firmly in the playoffs, but coach Doc Rivers was asked about the Mavericks’ situation as well as tanking around the league.
“The Dallas thing, just throw that over there by itself,” said Rivers. “That came out of nowhere and no one — you get it because of draft stuff, but it is a tough one. Even us the other night, we didn’t play anybody nor should we. But Atlanta needed to win that game, and let’s say if Atlanta had won that game, the teams that are vying for — are looking at us like ‘What are you doing?’ it’s a tough one.”
NBA spokesman Mike Bass: "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.”
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023
Rivers and the Sixers sat their top six players in Friday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks as the goal is to prepare for the playoffs. The Hawks were still fighting for position in the play-in and there are plenty of situations like that around the league.
“I do think it’s actually working overall the way they intended to,” said Rivers. “Really, I think the play-in has really worked. In the West, I walked in the locker room and said ‘Someone make me understand how can — like what’s going on in the West at the bottom five on?’ It’s perfect. Every team actually has to win because if they take the risk of losing, they end up dropping, and it’s a mess. In a good way.”
Rivers addressed situations like the one in Dallas and the ones around the league with teams focused on the draft rather than looking ahead to the playoffs.
“The other stuff, that’s hard,” he finished. “I don’t know if there’s a fix. There can’t be an incentive to it, that’s where those trades though when you make and you have the incumbent picks, maybe there’s a fix there, but other than that, no, I don’t think there is.”
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