Mavericks suspend Rajon Rondo after heated exchange with coach

The Dallas Mavericks suspended Rajon Rondo for their game Wednesday night in Atlanta for conduct detrimental to the team, a day after the point guard had a heated exchange on the court with coach Rick Carlisle and was benched.

Carlisle said he must communicate better with Rondo.

“The incident last night was born in large part from poor communication between him and I,” Carlisle said Wednesday. “That’s on both of us. We had a long talk about the situation today and we both agreed we need to communicate more frequently and we need to work on the solution of making his stint as a Dallas Maverick the most successful one possible.”

Rondo came out with 8:10 left in the third quarter of Dallas’ 99-92 home victory over Toronto. He was bringing the ball up the court when Carlisle angrily shouted for a timeout and exchanged words with Rondo from several feet away as the player headed to the bench.

The Mavericks were trailing by nine when Rondo was pulled and rallied with backups Devin Harris and J.J. Barea running the offense along with leading scorer Monta Ellis, who sometimes handles the ball.

Carlisle said Rondo will return as a starter for the Mavericks’ next game against Brooklyn on Saturday.

“It’s one game. He’ll serve it tonight,” Carlisle said. “We’ll be off tomorrow. He’ll practice Friday and he’ll be back in the starting lineup on Saturday. The events of last night are now in the past and we’ve got to move forward.

“I need to say this very clearly: He’s an extremely important part of our team. Our efforts to get to the highest possible level largely hinge on … playing well with him. He needs to play well with us and we need to play well with him. It’s a two-way street.”

Carlisle said the suspension was “an organizational decision.”

The suspension left the Mavericks with only 11 players against the Hawks. Center Tyson Chandler was held out with a hip contusion and forward Amare Stoudemire was rested with the team playing on back-to-back days. Forward Chandler Parsons was held out with a left ankle injury.

Acquired in a trade with Boston in December to try to improve the playoff outlook for the Mavericks in the difficult Western Conference, Rondo hasn’t had an easy transition.

The four-time All-Star who won a title with the Celtics in 2008 was on the bench in the final minutes of a four-point loss to Chicago about a month after the trade and said afterward he didn’t have a problem with Carlisle’s decision. Dallas’ offense has sunk from the top of the league to fourth in points per game since he arrived.