04-08-2023, 10:28 AM
Mark Cuban should refund all fans who bought tickets for last night's Mavericks game against the Bulls and Sunday's against the Spurs. Here's why.
The Mavericks had a real shot to earn the 10th seed in play-in if they beat the Bulls, who were already locked into the 10th seed in East and were resting their best players. At the same time, the Mavericks owe the Knicks a first round pick if it is outside the Top 10. In an absurd coincidence, they went into the game tied with the Bulls for 10th, meaning if the Bulls won, the Mavs could almost ensure keeping the pick. The Mavericks didn't play Kyrie Irving, and played Doncic just 13 minutes, then fringe rotation guys, to stop pursuing the play-in, and basically lose on purpose.
This one game after pushing all their chips in to beat the Kings to have a shot at play-in. Can you imagine buying tickets to see a highly competitive NBA game, and then showing up to find a pre-season game has broken out, with both teams not caring at all about winning. Sure the players who played wanted to win, but the paying customers were totally cheated out of what they paid to see - their team giving everything with its best players to win. Mark Cuban should allow anyone in the building for free on Sunday, as both teams will be trying to lose to improve draft positioning.
On a similar note, the Kings and Suns rested their key players rather than really put in max effort to beat the Warriors and Lakers, and neither did.
Given the Knicks rested their key guys and laid down for the Pelicans like the Suns and Kings, the Warriors clinched nothing other than the opportunity to avoid play-in by winning in Portland. Sure was interesting how Anthony Davis and LeBron James improved from doubtful to playing on Friday night...
The Nets clinched the 6th seed Friday night, making every single game in the Eastern Conference on Sunday meaningless for playoff seeding. No fewer than four games impact playoff seedings in West, and would be five if the Mavs didn't tank to hold on to a first round draft pick in June.
The Mavericks had a real shot to earn the 10th seed in play-in if they beat the Bulls, who were already locked into the 10th seed in East and were resting their best players. At the same time, the Mavericks owe the Knicks a first round pick if it is outside the Top 10. In an absurd coincidence, they went into the game tied with the Bulls for 10th, meaning if the Bulls won, the Mavs could almost ensure keeping the pick. The Mavericks didn't play Kyrie Irving, and played Doncic just 13 minutes, then fringe rotation guys, to stop pursuing the play-in, and basically lose on purpose.
This one game after pushing all their chips in to beat the Kings to have a shot at play-in. Can you imagine buying tickets to see a highly competitive NBA game, and then showing up to find a pre-season game has broken out, with both teams not caring at all about winning. Sure the players who played wanted to win, but the paying customers were totally cheated out of what they paid to see - their team giving everything with its best players to win. Mark Cuban should allow anyone in the building for free on Sunday, as both teams will be trying to lose to improve draft positioning.
On a similar note, the Kings and Suns rested their key players rather than really put in max effort to beat the Warriors and Lakers, and neither did.
Given the Knicks rested their key guys and laid down for the Pelicans like the Suns and Kings, the Warriors clinched nothing other than the opportunity to avoid play-in by winning in Portland. Sure was interesting how Anthony Davis and LeBron James improved from doubtful to playing on Friday night...
The Nets clinched the 6th seed Friday night, making every single game in the Eastern Conference on Sunday meaningless for playoff seeding. No fewer than four games impact playoff seedings in West, and would be five if the Mavs didn't tank to hold on to a first round draft pick in June.