The coronavirus pandemic is spiking in Florida, but that won’t stop the Dallas Mavericks from flying to Orlando on Wednesday while preparing to restart the 2019-20 season.

The Mavs will practice in Orlando starting Friday, and will have scrimmages against the Los Angeles Lakers on July 23, the Indiana Pacers on July 26, and Philadelphia 76ers on July 28 before playing the first of eight regular season games on July 31 against the Houston Rockets. All of this will occur in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has killed over 540,000 people across the world, including over 131,000 in the United States.

Florida has reported a 19 percent increase in positive cases, the highest of any state behind Arizona. Four dozen hospitals in Florida have reported that their ICU beds have reached full capacity, and others are close to being full.

“The (COVID-19) numbers are spiking in a lot of places, Texas included,” coach Rick Carlisle said during a Tuesday afternoon Zoom conference call. “We’re aware of what’s going on down in Florida, and in our Zoom call yesterday with the league with all the head coaches and assistant coaches, it was brought up, it was talked about.

“More than anything else, it just brings in an obvious extra level of carefulness that you have to bring and respect that you have to bring to this situation. We’ll all be wearing masks on the plane, to my knowledge. We’ll be wearing masks on the bus to the hotel.”

Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said he’ll wear a mask on the sidelines during the games when the regular season resumes. Carlisle hasn’t made a decision on that just yet.

“What I can tell you is I believe that the plan going into this was front of the bench coaches would have the option of not wearing masks,” Carlisle said. “That is not to say that some coaches on the front of the bench won’t decide to wear them. The fact that Mike decided to wear them, to my knowledge is a personal choice.

“Who knows? I may decide to wear one, too, but that is something that I haven’t had a direct conversation with the league about yet. As we move forward I think you’re going to see a lot of give and take on things. The level of fluidity with this situation is ongoing. Everything day-to-day you’re kind of adapting, reacting and doing what’s best based on circumstances. I respect Mike’s decision to do that and I think it’s a great thing.”

Remaining safe in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, of course, is the NBA’s top priority. With 35 employees from each of the 22 teams headed to Orlando to be stationed in a bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing become of utmost importance.

“I could tell you this: Every place we go, every room we go in, every situation we’re in, everything is going to be sanitized, and then once we leave it’ll be re-sanitized,” Carlisle said. “Everything from practice floors to meeting rooms to any kind of situation where players or coaches are going to be.

“Even though the cases are high in Florida, our protected area should be one of the safest places to be if you factor in the amount of testing and the amount of care that’s going into the planning, so we have a lot of faith in that. And as we move forward, once again we move into this with a high degree of respect for the virus, a high degree of humility that every day we’ve got to really pay attention to detail to as much as possible keep our ourselves and our team out of harm’s way.”

Carlisle is well aware that the Major Soccer League sent FC Dallas back to Dallas from Orlando for good earlier this week because the team had 10 players and a member of its technical staff test positive for the coronavirus. So what happens if something unfortunate occurs with one of the 22 NBA teams assembled in Orlando?

“I’m sure that all these scenarios have been talked about and have been covered in the protocols,” Carlisle said. “The most important thing is to do whatever you can do to stay safe, to stay socially distanced, to try to avoid the kind of really difficult situation that happened to FC Dallas. The virus is unpredictable on many levels, but the one thing that’s very predictable is the level of contagiousness that is involved with it.”

Carlisle is hopeful that the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver will be on top of their game in all matters regarding keeping the players, coaches and other team employees safe.

“The NBA has done a really, really, really great job of communicating the safety protocols — everything from the 36-to-48 hour quarantine when we get in there,” Carlisle said. “We’ve just been tested three days in a row.

“We just got to all keep our eye on the ball, do what’s being asked in terms of safety and hope that this type of situation does not happen again.”

With several soccer enthusiasts on the Mavericks’ roster, Carlisle isn’t sure if the NBA will allow his players to attend the MSL is Back Tournament, which also will be in Orlando.

“I don’t know logistically where they’re located in relation to us,” he said. “In today’s day and age, if you have a telephone you could probably watch any soccer, basketball, football, baseball game or match that you want to watch.”

The Mavs started mandatory voluntary workouts last Wednesday at the team’s Lympo practice facilities, but some players had been working out one-on-one on their own before that.

“I’ve been in the gym two weeks as of tomorrow,” Carlisle said. “I was allowed in Tuesday the 23rd for testing, but there were no workouts that day.

“So ever since I’ve been in, which has been 13 days, I’ve gotten to watch every day. And as I mentioned a moment ago, the workouts have been constantly gradually ramping up, and this is really the players ramping it up on their own. I mean, these are voluntary.”

The Mavs were 40-27 and in seventh place in the Western Conference standings when the NBA suspended the season on March 11 following a positive coronavirus test by Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert. Now, the Mavs are trying to get their groove back.

With assistance from Casey Smith (director of player health and performance), Dionne Calhoun (head athletic trainer), Jeremy Holsopple (director of athletic performance), and Heather Mau (assistant athletic trainer), the Mavs can genuinely say they’re on the right path from a safety standpoint.

“I just see the overall intensity level increasing as we’re going along,” Carlisle said. “Again, I feel good about where we’re at this particular moment. I was talking to (owner) Mark (Cuban) yesterday about everything that’s been going on here,” Carlisle said. “Our support staff — Casey Smith, Dionne Calhoun, Jeremy Holsopple — these guys have just done a phenomenal job of keeping things clean and safe to this point, and creating an environment where our guys feel a real positivity when they walk in the gym, even though the world is going through this unprecedented challenge.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice

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