With the top seed in the eastern conference and home court advantage throughout the playoffs secured, the Milwaukee Bucks will rest their starting five and key reserve, Pat Connaughton.
All of the above are slightly dinged, but if the Bucks playoff chances depended on it, Giannis and most of the starting five would play.
Not the case for the Dallas Mavericks.
With two games to play, the Mavericks must win out and get some help to avoid being eliminated from playoff contention via the play-in tournament.
With backs against the wall and the playoffs still in play, the Mavs will rest all-star guard Kyrie Irving and four key contributors. Two of those key contributors are void of an injury.
They just need rest.
What kind of message does that send to the fanbase?
What kind of message does that send to all-star Luca Doncic who publicly dismissed the idea of resting his legitimate quad injury and appears ready to gut it out?
With the playoffs in view, Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban would rather lose. It’s nothing new for Cuban who admitted to tanking in 2018 and paid a hefty fine for doing so.
Cuban’s belief that being a part of the NBA draft lottery is a better long-term strategy eschews the very foundation of sports where you finish what you start, and give it all you got.