NBA investigating Mavericks for sitting key players with playoff hopes alive

• NBA opens investigation into Mavericks' move to sit players
• Dallas held out five players in Friday's game with Chicago

The NBA wants to know why the Dallas Mavericks held out several key players in their next-to-last game of the season, even while the team still had a mathematical chance of making the play-in tournament.

NBA officials opened an investigation Saturday into the Mavericks' decision-making surrounding Friday's game against the Chicago Bulls, in which Dallas sat Kyrie Irving for the entire game and Luka Doncic for most of the contest. The Mavericks blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and lost, getting eliminated from postseason consideration.