The Dallas Mavericks have come out with one of the most confusing decisions on the Luka Doncic front ahead of their must-win game against the Chicago Bulls on Friday. As it turns out, the Mavs aren't really gunning for a victory against the Bulls, despite the fact that they still have a shot at securing a spot for the Play-In tournament in the West. This is after the team announced that Doncic will be available for Friday's contest, but only for the first quarter.

Yes, you read that right. Luka will play against the Bulls, but only in the opening period. He will then sit out the remainder of the contest along with Kyrie Irving, Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, and Christian Wood, who have all also been ruled out for Friday's do-or-die contest.

I was quite baffled too when I first heard the news, but apparently, the Mavs are only playing Doncic because of the fact that it's Slovenian Night on Friday. A lot of Slovenian fans went out of their way to watch tonight's game, and they all came to see Luka Doncic play.

Mavs head coach Jason Kidd has now spoken out about the situation, and unfortunately for Mavs fans, his statement is only going to add further misery:

“I can't speak for him. But I think when you look at, we all said that we want to have the opportunity to find a way to get in (the Play-In tournament),” Kidd said, via Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “And we were gonna play until told otherwise. And today is the day that we've been told that we're gonna do something different. And so he's gonna participate in the first quarter and then he's done for the season.”

For some reason, Kidd backtracked on the “for the season” quip, but also said that that's the plan for the Mavs right now. Apparently, even coach Kidd is confused by all this.

What you can say for sure, however, is that Dallas is headed for a very interesting offseason.