Jason Kidd admits that Cuban and Nico ordered him to lose vs. Bulls / News - Basketnews.com

Jason Kidd explained that difficult decisions are sometimes necessary to build a championship team and that the Mavs bosses, including owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison, were responsible for planning elimination from playoff contention.

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Dallas Mavericks blew a 13-point halftime lead on Friday night and stumbled against the Chicago Bulls, 112-115.

Player of the Game EFF 30 Coby White Points 24 Accuracy 10-17 Rebounds 7 Assists 11

Dallas (38-43) came into the must-win duel trailing the Oklahoma City Thunder (39-42) by one game for the West's final play-in spot and yet played without Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Christian Wood, Josh Green, and Maxi Kleber. Luka Doncic was limited to only 12 minutes and 35 seconds of action.

Mavs head coach Jason Kidd revealed post-game that the elimination from playoff contention was planned.

"Decisions sometimes are hard in this business," he said. "You have to make hard decisions. We are trying to build a championship team and sometimes you got to take a step back.

"These are decisions that are made from my bosses and we gotta follow them," Kidd added. "We trust [Mark] Cuban and Nico [Harrison] to put the pieces together, to put us in a position to win the championship, and so that's just starting the process today."

Dallas has missed the NBA playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

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