Mavericks suspend Brendan Haywood for tonight's game

Still not quite certain of the reason behind it, but Brendan
Haywood was sent back to Dallas, where he will serve his one-game suspension.
 
Rick Carlisle didn’t shed much light on it, but here’s
what he had to say in his pre-game address with media members:
 
“A violation of team policy, so it’s a one-game
suspension. I’m not going to expound on it any more than that. It’s
going to remain an internal matter. The only thing I’ll say is in
two-plus years, one thing I’ve grown to respect and admire about Mark
(Cuban) and this franchise is that everyone’s treated great and everyone
is held to a high level of accountability. We expect a lot and we’re
going to make sure things are right.’’
 
Once the suspension is served, the matter will be over,
Carlisle said.
 
What that means for tonight’s game is that the
Mavericks will have a new cast backing up starting center Tyson Chandler, who
by the way said “that’s the plan’’ when asked if he
could go 40 minutes tonight.
 
“We’re going to activate (Alexis) Ajinca and (Ian)
Mahinmi will be active,’’ Carlisle said. “It’s all
hands on deck. Ian will probably be the first guy we go to. And Lex will be on
call. And we can always go small with Shawn at the five. But we like playing
big and going in that’s the plan.’’
 
As for Mahinmi, the former Spur, Carlisle said he’s an
attractive alternative “because he’s a hard worker and he’s
benefited from being in a great system with these guys. And we view him as a
future part of our picture here.’’