DENVER – Because of inclement weather conditions in Denver, the Dallas Mavericks have had a very unusual day in the Mile High City.

After moving their team plane’s departure out of Dallas from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning because of poor weather in Denver, the Mavs arrived at their team hotel in Denver on Thursday morning at 9:45 local time. Thus, there was no time for a shootaround in preparation of Thursday’s 8:30 p.m. MDT tipoff between the Mavs and Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center.

Coach Rick Carlisle said arriving in the city on the same day he has to play a game has its many challenges.

“In the modern era of private planes and charters, I’ve never been with a team where this has happened,” Carlisle said. “We got out (of Dallas) this morning, gained an hour, which was good, got right to the hotel, we had a team meeting and then got off our feet.

“It was a different kind of day for sure. It was a very unusual situation.”

Center Salah Mejri said he’s never seen anything like this before.

“I’ve traveled a lot in Europe, to Russia where it’s very cold in Moscow,” Mejri said. “Even here I traveled to very cold places like Minnesota in the winter and I never saw something like how it was snowing. It was crazy.

“We saw a snow storm in New York this year, too, but it wasn’t anything like that. This was scary.”

Guard Courtney Lee said arriving in the city where he has t play a game on the same day took him back to his high school days.

“It threw a lot of stuff off,” Lee said. “It takes you all the way back to your AAU days when you’re traveling and playing on the same day.”

Lee was grateful for one thing that came out of this very unusual day.

“A got a couple of buddies that live out here and they were like it was a blizzard (on Wednesday), and the winds were crazy last night,” Lee said. “I’m glad that we didn’t try to force the issue and come last night, and put safety first and come this morning.”

Carlisle isn’t about to use the unusual travel as any kind of an excuse if things don’t go right for the Mavs when they battle the Nuggets.

“Look, the NBA is wild and crazy at times and sometimes things like this happen,” Carlisle said. “You just got to get ready and play.

“I’m not big into excuses. I certainly don’t want to make any excuse before they throw the ball up.”

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