Knowing that it’s a totally difficult situation, Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle gave kudos to the NBA for keeping the league’s 30 teams on the court as much as they have this season.

While some teams have had to play on while missing some of their key players, other teams have had their games postponed. Although that has been somewhat confusing to some fans, Carlisle understands.

“Without knowing all of the details and every in and out of every situation, I know they’re doing their best,” Carlisle said of the NBA. “We knew getting into this season that there were going to be many unusual challenges.

“Who knew that one of the challenges was going to be an eight-day break between games, which we had last week? And there will be more unexpected things in the second half. We just don’t know exactly what they are.”

Josh Richardson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, Dwight Powell and Jalen Brunson are the five Mavs players who have missed a combined total of 41 games either due to contracting the coronavirus or because of health and safety protocols. That obviously is one of the reasons the Mavs are just 15-16 after Thursday’s 111-97 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

“We’re coming up on almost a year since the hiatus hit last March 11,” Carlisle said. “There’s been a lot of adjusting, there’s been a lot of pivoting, everyone’s had to be light on their feet. But really you haven’t heard an exorbitant amount of complaining.

“We all understand that this is a dynamic business, a dynamic set of circumstances. It’s a real blessing to be able to play our game and coach our game and work in the NBA.”

Carlisle gives the NBA two thumbs off for being able to keep things afloat during these difficult times.

“It’s pretty amazing — if you think about it – the way the league has been able to operate from a league office standpoint, pretty much virtually,” Carlisle. “All things considered, we’re doing pretty damn good right now as a league.”

Concerns about condensed schedule: To say that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle is concerned about the condensed second half of the season schedule – which was released Wednesday — is a huge understatement.

“Are there concerns,?” Carlisle rhetorically asked. “Of course there’s concerns, but it’s going to have to be managed with strategic rest, managing minutes.

“Quality practices are probably going to be few and far between. And a lot of every team’s individual success is going to come down to their mental approach and their willingness to take on a difficult challenge.”

In the second half of the season which starts on March 10, the Mavs will play 38 games in only 68 compacted days. The only teams with more games in the second half of the season are the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies, who each will play 40 games after the March 7 All-Star game.

“We’re going to be upbeat about it, but we’re going to be very realistic about it as well,” Carlisle said. “And when we need to rest guys we’ll rest guys, and when we need to manage minutes on a somewhat extreme level, we’ll do that.

“But until we get into it, we’ve got (three) games left, we’ve got a six-day break and then we jump into a back-to-back.”

Speaking of back-to-backs, the Mavs will have 10 of those in the season’s second half. The only teams with more are the Indiana Pacers, Spurs and Grizzlies, who each will have 11.

Carlisle, though, is taking the rugged schedule in stride, knowing that he has no choice but to manage it.

“I don’t look too far ahead,” Carlisle said. “I didn’t even know who were playing these last four games (of the first half of the season) until I looked this afternoon. I only look about a game or two ahead.

“I think if you look too far ahead things can become a bit daunting. That’s why it’s important to stay in the present, and that’s what we try to do here.”

Doncic was spot-on: Before Thursday’s game between the Mavericks and Philadelphia, Sixers coach Doc Rivers discussed the challenge of trying to get guard Luka Doncic off his favorite 3-point spot on the left side of the court.

It’s the spot where Doncic drained a dramatic game-winning shot at the buzzer to beat the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 4 of the first-round of last summer’s playoffs. It’s also the same spot where Doncic drilled the game-winning shot against the Boston Celtics with just 0.1 second remaining this past Tuesday.

“It’s hard to keep a guy from a spot when it’s at half court on the left side of the floor,” said Rivers, who was coaching the Clippers at the time of Doncic’s dagger last summer. “You know it’s coming.

“Watching it, it’s funny. Boston and us, you can see that they were coming to trap him. And we were coming, but he shot it before they got there. He’s very crafty.”

And very talented.

“He’s going to get on his spot, but then you have to come earlier,” Rivers said. “I think we made the same mistake as (the Celtics) as we didn’t get there quick enough.”

Black history moment: Coach Rick Carlisle started Thursday’s pre-game press conference by discussing the virtues of jockey Oliver Lewis, who won the very first Kentucky Derby.

“Oliver Lewis was an African-American and the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby at only 19 years old,” Carlisle said. “The race was held May 17, 1875, in what was then the Louisville Jockey Club and is now Churchill Downs.

“Lewis rode a horse name Aristides, which is one of two colts entered by owner H. Price McGrath. His other horse, Chesapeake, was ridden by William Henry.”

Lewis won the race by two lengths and, at the time, set a new American record for a mile-and-a-half race.

“Chesapeake was favored to win the $22,850 purse and Lewis was told that his job was to lead most of the race to tire out the other horses,’ Carlisle said. “Out of the 15 jockeys in the field, 13 were African American.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice

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