Black Eye For The NBA As Mavs Sit Stars With Playoffs At Stake

Before I get to the disgustingness in Dallas…

The Knicks played their final road game of the season Friday night in New Orleans, falling to the Pelicans 113-105.

The outcome was not surprising, considering the game had major playoff implications for the Pels and had no impact on the Knicks' postseason seeding. 

New York, locked into the No. 5 seed in the East, was without three starters: Julius Randle (ankle injury), Jalen Brunson (right hand) and Mitchell Robinson (rest). 

Nonetheless, the Knicks that took the floor Friday night all played hard and, for the most part, played well. Immanuel Quickley racked up 24 points (8-of-18 FGs, 2-of-2 FTs), five rebounds, two assists, and six 3-pointers. Over the Knicks' last seven games, IQ is averaging 26.9 points, 5.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 3.9 treys, while shooting over 50% from the floor and 50% from downtown. 

New York's leading scorer in New Orleans was RJ Barrett, who finished with 28 points, seven rebounds, and six assists in 35 minutes. Looking at the box score, those numbers seemed awfully impressive; however, they lose some luster if you dig deeper. 

But let's start with the positive. Barrett has been at his best this season when he uses his rare combination of size, strength and agility to power his way into the paint, creating scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. That's precisely what he did to punish the Pels on Friday. RJ was 10-of-11 on shots within five feet of the basket. He also made the Pelicans pay when they collapsed defensively by spraying the ball out to open shooters. His six assists Friday were one shy of his season-high, and he didn't commit a single turnover. 

On the flip side of the coin, Barrett attempted nine three-pointers vs. New Orleans. And he missed all nine. He was 1-of-14 on shots outside of five feet. 

Over his last 15 games, RJ is just 18-of-82 (22%) from three-point territory. On the season, his 3PT percentage has dipped all the way to a career-low 31%. He is on pace to become just the sixth player in NBA history to attempt more than five treys per game and shoot 31% or worse over the course of an entire NBA season. 

Beginning next weekend, this could be a significant issue when we can expect the Cavs to sag off RJ and dare him to fire away from the perimeter. 

In addition, Barrett also had some lapses on the defensive end in Friday's losses. New York will need him locked in on that end of the floor vs. Cleveland, which includes doing a better job boxing out.

Despite scoring a team-high 28 points and dishing out a team-high six assists, the Knicks were outscored by 15 points with RJ on the floor Friday night. His -15 plus/minus was the worst on the team. 

Obi Toppin is the other player the Knicks will need to do a better job on the defensive end and on the glass. As I highlighted in Thursday's post, Obi has been an offensive force when given the opportunity. And he did score 10 points in 26 minutes vs. New Orleans. However, he was benched for the entire fourth quarter. Thibs didn't address it directly postgame, but the reason has to be related to Obi's defensive flaws. That being said, it's ridiculous not to give Toppin an opportunity to prove himself in games like last night. New York was tied heading into the final frame before being outscored by eight points in the fourth, so it's not like Thibs strategy resulted in a win. We have seen countless occasions when Randle has been allowed to close out games despite playing poorly on the defensive end. 

The Knicks will close out the regular season at home on Sunday when they host the Pacers at 1 PM. 

🏀 Elsewhere Around The Association 🏀

The eyes of the NBA centered on Dallas last night. And for all the wrong reasons. 

Heading into Friday's matchup with the Bulls, the Mavs had a legit chance to advance to the play-in tournament. Dallas needed to beat Chicago (who was already locked into the 10th seed in the East and would be resting their two leading scorers) and defeat an awful Spurs team Sunday. If Dallas took care of business and won two winnable home games, and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the OKC Thunder on Sunday, the Mavs would secure the 10th seed and earn a trip to the dance. 

They would then have to win two play-in games to advance to a first-round matchup with the Denver Nuggets (who have been a bit shaky of late), but we're talking about a team featuring Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving and a decent supporting cast. Remember, Doncic is one of only two players in NBA history to average more than 30 points per game in the playoffs. The other guy is Michael Jeffery Jordan. In the 28 games he's played in the postseason in his career, Doncic has averaged 32.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists. And as we know, Doncic's backcourt teammate, Kyrie Irving, has authored some incredible postseason moments, including hitting one of the biggest shots in league history in Game 7 vs. Golden State.  

Yes, the odds were stacked against the Mavs making noise this postseason, but as of Friday morning, they were still alive. And earlier this week, amid speculation the Mavericks could shelf both Luka and Kyrie for the last three games of the season, Luka declared, "I'm playing tomorrow. When there's still a chance, I'm going to play". 

So that was the backdrop yesterday when Dallas announced they were quitting. 

The Mavs benched Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Christian Wood in their matchup against Chicago. Because it was "Slovenia night" at the arena, and some fans had flown thousands of miles to see Doncic in action, Luka played the first quarter before leaving the contest for good in the opening minute of the second.

Still, try as they might to lose, Dallas was leading late in the game. In the fourth quarter vs. Chicago, with their season ostensibly on the line, the Mavs leaned on someone named McKinley Wright IV, who attempted 11 shots in the final frame. Theo Pinson, who logged a career-high 31 minutes, was 1-of-5 in the fourth. AJ Lawson, an undrafted rookie playing in just his 14th career NBA game, also took five shots in the final quarter.

Despite their best efforts to tank, Dallas was down only three points in the closing moments. On their final possession, the Mavericks had a three-pointer blocked, then air-balled a three-pointer, before clanking a 3-ball off the backboard. According to ESPN Stats and Info, Dallas became the first team over the last ten seasons to fail to hit the rim on three 3-point attempts inside the final 15 seconds of a game.

Ultimately, the Mavs prioritized increasing the odds of keeping their 2023 first-round pick over making a push for the playoffs. 

As part of Dallas' ill-fated 2019 trade for Kristaps Porzingis, the Knicks hold the right to the Mavericks' first-round pick, but only if it isn't in the top 10.  

The Bulls and Mavericks entered Friday's game tied for the 10th-worst record in the league. With the loss, Dallas is now in 10th by themselves and will remain there if they lose on Sunday. 

The fact that the Mavs didn't even pretend to give an injury designation to Josh Green (rest) and Christian Wood (rest) is a massive F.U. to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the league office. Mavs players will have 6 MONTHS to rest starting next week.

As an aside, it's important to note that even if the Mavs finish the season with the league's tenth-worst record, that doesn't guarantee them a top-10 pick. One of the teams above them (Bulls, Thunder etc.) could jump up into the top-4, which would push the Mavs down to 11 - and send their pick to the Knicks. In addition, if Dallas' pick doesn't convey this year, New York will still own the rights to the Mavs pick next season (or in 2025 if Dallas remains in the top 10 in 2024). 

All told, what went down Friday night was an awful look for the NBA. 

The league attempts to convince fans that the regular season is crucially important. The health of their business depends on convincing fans that they should invest time, energy, and money - buying tickets and watching these games on TV, etc. That was one of the primary reasons the play-in tournament was created: to prevent tanking and add importance to regular-season contests. 

Yet, when one of the league's 30 teams (a team featuring one of the world's most talented and marketable players) has a chance to qualify for the play-in tournament, but instead does everything in its power to lose that game… it sends a terrible, unmistakable message to the fans worldwide. 

As an aside, players are often criticized for being "lazy" or not as tough as players from the 80s and 90s when they sit out back-to-backs etc. Yet, the decisions to sit players are often management decisions. Just as this was. Given a choice, do you think Luka and Kyrie and company would have preferred to watch in street clothes as their season was extinguished? (Doncic and Irving were not made available to the media after the loss.)

Keep in mind, back in February of 2018, Silver fined Cuban $600,000 for merely talking about potentially tanking games.

"I'm probably not supposed to say this, but I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night," Cuban said during a podcast appearance that winter. "And here we are. We weren't competing for the playoffs. I was like, 'Look, losing is our best option.'

Then-Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said he talked with the team and Cuban about the comments and added that Cuban "apologized profusely" and was "embarrassed by it." Dirk Nowitzki said, "Players never play to lose," and he'll "never stand for losing on purpose."

Commissioner Silver said the fine was for "public statements detrimental to the NBA."

Here's what Silver wrote in a Feb. 21 internal memo (obtained by USA Today) to teams following the incident. 

"Over the past several seasons, discussions about so-called 'tanking' in the NBA have occurred with some frequency, both in the public discourse and within our league, and you as governors have taken steps to address the underlying incentive issues by adopting changes to our draft lottery system that will go into effect next year," Silver wrote. "Throughout this period, we have been careful to distinguish between efforts teams may make to rebuild their rosters, including through personnel changes over the course of several seasons, and circumstances in which players or coaches on the floor take steps to lose games. 

"The former can be a legitimate strategy to construct a successful team within the confines of league rules; the latter — which we have not found and hope never to see in the NBA — has no place in our game. If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office."

"The integrity of the competition on the playing court is the cornerstone of our league," he wrote. "It is our pact with the fans and with each other, the fundamental reason we exist as a preeminent sporting organization, the very product that we sell. With everything else changing around us, it is the one thing in our league that can never change. We must do everything in our power to protect the actual and perceived integrity of the game.

UPDATE (Saturday Afternoon):
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.”