SAN ANTONIO — It turns out Luka Doncic will play in the Mavericks’ high-stakes regular-season finale Sunday against the Spurs afterall.
The NBA announced Saturday that it would rescind a technical foul assessed to Doncic in Friday’s game against the Trail Blazers that would’ve been his 16th of the season, resulting in him having to serve a one-game suspension.
An official handed Doncic a technical foul with “no warning” as he expressed frustration that a foul wasn’t called on his half-court heave at the end of the first quarter of the Mavericks’ 128-78 win.
Doncic expressed hope Friday evening that the NBA league office would rescind the technical foul and allow him to play Sunday in a game with major seeding implications, and the league took the Slovanian’s side Saturday.
Draymond Green, who’s been slapped with a few questionable technical fouls of his own over the past few weeks, seemed to agree with the league’s decision to overturn the call.
“Techs rescinded for no cursing… I’ll finally win some appeals,” Green tweeted before the Warriors’ game against the Spurs.
Sunday’s game could determine whether Dallas or Golden State earn the third seed in the Western Conference. The Mavs (51-30) entered Saturday a half-game behind the third-place Warriors (51-29) and own the tiebreaker.
There are currently two scenarios for the Warriors, who already hitched home-court advantage for their first-round series, to secure the third seed. They either need to win out if they want to earn the seed on their own terms or win on of their two games and Dallas needs to lose its final game.
Doncic leads his team in points (28.5), rebounds (9.1) and assists (8.7) per game.
