MAVERICKS 101

The Dallas Mavericks head to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder Thursday night, and Dirk Nowitzki will play his second game since coming back from knee surgery.

But for now, head coach Rick Carlisle and Dirk Nowitzki have decided that it is best for the former MVP to keep coming off the bench to ease his way back into the fold for Dallas.

“I’m just telling you he’s coming off the bench and we’ll see where it goes,” Carlisle said. “If there’s a limited number of minutes we can play him, to burn those up at the very beginning when there’s no timeouts the first six minutes is tough on him and it doesn’t make sense for us. So our starters got to hold the fort."

Nowitzki suggested coming off the bench when he came back from the procedure.

The future Hall-of-Famer surprised a lot of us when he made his return against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night. Many thought his return would be closer to the New Year.

The Mavs, 12-16, are coming off a brutal loss to the Spurs, and are heading to OKC with a three-day break under their belt. Dallas will try to snap its three-game losing streak, while avoiding its first four-game losing streak of the season.

Tags: Basketball, Dallas, Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, NBA, Rick Carlisle

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