Luka Doncic (in the middle, covering his face with his hand) was taken out of the game during the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls.
The NBA has fined the Dallas Mavericks $750,000 because they didn’t play all their best players while they were still trying to qualify for the playoffs.
NBA executive Joe Dumars said that the Mavericks let down their supporters and their league.
The Mavericks lost 115-112 to the Bulls on April 7th.
Dallas has reported that five players – Kyle Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr, Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Christian Wood – are unable to play due some injuries, while Luka Doncic only played for 12 minutes. This caused many people to accuse them of “tanking”, which means they deliberately put a team that was not fully able to win in order to get better draft picks.
The Dallas Mavericks hoped to sign Victor Wembanyama from France, but the team got a lower score than they hoped. The NBA said that the Mavericks were trying to lose games in order to get a better draft pick later on. Even though the league believed this, they said that none of the players tried to avoid winning while being in the game.
Dumars was upset because Dallas had done something that ruined the fairness of the sport.
Dallas can keep a pick from the 2023 draft if it is in the top 10, but if it falls on 11th or lower, it has to go to the New York Knicks as payment for getting Latvian forward Kristaps Porzingis in January 2019.
An event will be held on 16 May where lottery picks will be decided; this will tell us exactly which order teams get their picks in June.
“Miami Heat, Timberwolves Secure Playoffs Spots
Jimmy Butler scored a whopping 22 points in the second half of their game against the Chicago Bulls. On Friday’s tournament, he and Max Strus both got an impressive 31 points as they won with 102-91! As a result, Miami Heat secured the final play-off spot in Eastern Conference. They will now face the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday which starts in Milwaukee.
Strus scored 23 and made seven three-pointers during the first half for the Heat, while Butler got 22 of his 31 points during the second half.
The Minnesota Timberwolves it easy, winning 120-95 against Oklahoma City Thunder. Karl-Anthony Towns got 28 points and 11 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert had 21 points with 10 rebounds after one game suspension. As a result, The Timberwolves were given the 8th seed spot in the Western Conference.
On Monday, the team will start off playing against the Denver Nuggets, who are currently the strongest team.
