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So, uh, Hawks, any chance you still wanna cancel tonight?
Mavericks PR has announced that Rajon Rondo will be suspended one game for "conduct detrimental to the team" and that he will serve the suspension tonight versus the Hawks. Presumably this stems from the incident on the court between Rondo and Rick Carlisle that resulted in Rondo being benched for much of the fourth quarter against the Raptors last night.
In the press conference last night, Rick Carlisle said that he considered the matter over, and Rondo didn't say much, mostly refusing to speak with the press. You can see all of Carlisle's comments here.
The Mavericks do run a pretty tight ship, and have a history of not messing around when it comes to things that potentially affect team chemistry. And that history is well known:
Cuban has said this before, but the Mavs are aggressive in keeping players on the same page. Not afraid to suspend, for better or worse.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) February 25, 2015
The Mavs will also be without Chandler Parsons tonight, who is still out with an ankle injury. Tyson Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki are also playing a little beat-up. Wouldn't be surprised to see both Dirk and Tyson sit and maybe just take a schedule loss at this point.
Either way, shorthanded and against one of the best teams in the league on the second night of a back-to-back, this game just got much harder for the Mavericks to win.
UPDATE:
Tim MacMahon has a little more information about how this may have come about.
Per sources, Rajon Rondo and Rick Carlisle had another heated exchange in the Mavs' locker room after last night's win.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 25, 2015