The Brooklyn Nets were fined $100,000 for violating the NBA’s player attendance policy following their 144-122 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 27 at Barclays Center, the league announced Thursday.
By a NBA press releasethe league determined that “four Nets rotation players, who did not participate in the game, could have played under the medical standard of the Player Participation Policy, which was adopted prior to this season.”
The four players in question were starters Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Cam Johnson, as well as role player Dorian Finney-Smith.
The only starters who played in the game were forward Mikal Bridges and guard Cam Thomas, but neither of them saw action after playing the entire first quarter.
One would imagine that the only reason Bridges wasn’t among the starters who didn’t play is because he currently has a streak of 423 consecutive games played, the longest active streak in the NBA.
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said after the game that the decision was made because of the team’s busy schedule before and after Christmas, and that he did not want to put any of those players in danger if they were not resting at any given time. .
It’s been a tough season so far for Vaughn and the Nets. The team is in the midst of a five-game losing streak and has lost eight of its last 10 games, leading to a 15-20 record and the ninth seed in a very competitive Eastern Conference.
If Brooklyn wants to get back on track, now is the time to do it as the team will play 14 of its next 19 games at home before the NBA All-Star Break in mid-February.
