DALLAS (AP) – Kyrie Irving had a seat next to Dallas owner Mark Cuban, and fellow All-Star Luka Doncic wasn’t far away in sweats after his limited duty was finished.
Neither was available to address how the Mavericks essentially pulled the plug on their season before they were eliminated from the postseason. That chore was left to coach Jason Kidd – again.
Coby White scored 24 points and the short-handed Chicago Bulls rallied past the depleted Mavericks 115-112 on Friday night, eliminating Dallas from play-in contention a year after the club reached the Western Conference finals.
Kidd said before the game an “organisational decision” was made to limit Doncic to the first quarter while sitting Irving and four other regulars when Dallas still had a chance to catch Oklahoma City for the final play-in spot as the 10th seed in the West.
Despite the move, the Mavericks led by double digits in the second half before a rag-tag bunch filled mostly with players who spent the season on the end of the Dallas bench slowly let the lead slip away.
“It’s not so much waving the white flag,” Kidd said. “It’s decisions sometimes are hard in this business. We’re trying to build a championship team.
“With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward.”
The Bulls sat their top two scorers in DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, but they are already locked in to the 10th seed in the East.
