Dallas Mavericks let go, Luka Doncic sat at home watching NBA Playoffs

Coby White scored 24 points and the unfit Chicago Bulls overcame an unmotivated Dallas Mavericks 115-112. The Texas State team officially became an outsider in the race to the Play-in round.

Coach Jason Kidd said before the game that "a decision from the top" had limited Luka Doncic's game time, in this case to 13 minutes. Before that, the team also excluded Kyrie Irving and 4 other key players from the list of matches..

Despite that shortfall, the home side made a double-digit lead as Markieff Morris scored 13 points in the second half and rookie Jaden Hardy made a buzzer-beater to give Dallas a 67-54 lead as half-time. The time of the match passed.

Morris and Hardy played so well that they were both pushed to the bench in the last two innings, alongside Luka Doncic. There wasn't much to say in the latter period, except that the Mavericks' super-subs didn't fall too far against a Chicago-missing-DeRozan-and-LaVine.

This defeat is important in the race to next year's No. 10 NBA Draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks. Before this morning's match, they are having the same record as the Chicago Bulls - the team already has tickets to the Play-in by playing in the East.

According to The Athletic, the defeat against the Bulls has firmly secured the No. 10 position for the Mavs in the upcoming Draft. That helps the Western team keep the first pick in hand. Earlier, in the Kristaps Porzingis trade, there was an agreement that Dallas would lose the first round pick to the New York Knicks if it was outside the top 10.

It was a comforting end to a season that wasn't much fun for Dallas. From an ambitious team to race to the Play-off, with a superstar Luka Doncic, they dropped miserably and couldn't even make it to the Play-in round.

The Kyrie Irving deal is said to be decisive for immediate success, but perhaps no one expected the team to go in the exact opposite direction. Owner Mark Cuban's team still wants to keep Kyrie, but in that case, coach Jason Kidd still needs more pieces of the puzzle to dream of a further goal.

In that context, letting the first-round pick fall into the hands of the Knicks will only make the Mavericks' season even more disastrous.