The first day of practice the inside the bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando brought with it some much-needed relief for the Dallas Mavericks.
It was the Mavs’ first full-fledged five-on-five practice session since before the NBA season was suspended on Mar. 11 due to the coronavirus. And from all indications, the Mavs are ready to pick back up where they left off nearly four months ago when they collected a 40-27 record following a 113-97 win over the Denver Nuggets.
“It’s great to be back in the gym,” coach Rick Carlisle said following Friday’s practice session. “Everybody misses the smell of the gym on a team basis — it’s one of the really special things about any sport.
“We had a really great productive practice. The level of enthusiasm is really terrific with our guys. They wanted to be back together on the floor, they worked extremely hard up until now, and so things are real positive.”
Carlisle said all of his players were able to participate in Friday’s practice except Dwight Powell (Achilles tendon surgery), Jalen Brunson (shoulder surgery), Courtney Lee (calf injury) and Willie Cauley-Stein, who remained home because he had a daughter born this past Tuesday. Before Friday, the Mavs had only been able to do individual workouts – as part of the NBA guidelines – but that all changed on Friday when five-on-five workouts ruled the day.
“We’re calling this event a ramp up,” Carlisle said. “We’re starting from Day One. We got through this practice with no issues. A lot of it is getting back to doing movements that are NBA court movements.
“The individual workouts over the last month-and-a-half, two months, have been just that. They’ve been individual workouts with in most cases were on a half court basis. So we’re beginning the process of full-fledge, full court conditioning, and of course we’re doing things that are necessary for us to review in terms of our strategy and how we play offensively and defensively.”
The Mavs are one of 22 teams that are part of the restart to the 2019-’20 season, and all of them had to quarantine in their respective hotel room for 48 hours and test positive for COVID-19 before they were allowed to practice. And even though the Mavs and other teams are practicing in a ballroom, they’re just excited they’re able to rekindle their love with their favorite craft – basketball.
“The light (in the ballroom) is a little bit dark, but obviously everybody is happy just to finally play some basketball again, so everybody was hyped,” center Maxi Kleber said. “The practice had good intensity, but if you look at the setup it’s kind of weird to be in a ballroom.”
Guard Seth Curry wasn’t a fan of the quarantine experience, yet he knows it’s necessary in regards to the health of everyone within the bubble.
“In quarantine I did a lot of sleeping for the most part,” Curry said. “The Wi-Fi wasn’t great.
“I was trying to watch some shows, get some sleep, talk to my family, just relax and try to really chill until we could get on the court and get out the room. It was a tough little 48 hours, but it’s over with now.”
In analyzing what has transpired since they flew to Orlando on Wednesday, Carlisle described it through the lenses of an historian.
“This is an historic situation,” he said. “It’s extraordinary this environment that they’ve put together, the care, the attention to detail and everything else.
“We’re going to have a great attitude about it, because we realize this is probably a once in a lifetime type thing. This will likely go down in history as one of the really unique events in sports history, so our guys have had a great attitude about it. The quarantine was fine, the accommodations are terrific.”
The accommodations, in fact, brought back some fond personal memories for Carlisle.
“The last time I was here (at this same hotel) was in early May of 2008,” he said. “I was here with my wife, Donna, and our daughter, Abby, who was four years old at the time. We had a family vacation that was planned out and it was really right after I had done my first interview with the Mavericks.
“I spent a lot of time at the Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and all the rides and everything else, and we had a blast. I’m not in the same room that we were in 2008, but once again the accommodations are really good. The process and procedures you’ve got to go through in an environment like this are unusual. Everything is touchless, your meals are delivered to your door in a touchless way, and during the quarantine it was a completely different experience. But with the capability of doing Zoom calls with your staff and virtually anybody on the planet, it’s surprising how much you can get done.”
The Mavs’ first regular season game in the ’19-’20 season’s restart won’t be until July 31. And their last of those eight regular season games won’t occur until Aug. 13. Then there’s a brief break before the Mavs advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
That means the Mavs could be in Orlando at a minimum until the last week in August, and as late as early October if they advance to the NBA Finals. So how does anyone pack for such a long journey?
“A lot of us had a lot of things sent down early,” Carlisle said. “We talked to a trucking company that transports all the (Dallas) Cowboys’ equipment out to California for their training camp and back, so they took a big load of stuff down early knowing that we’re going to be here at least two months.
“I have an exercise bike from home – I sent that down. I sent some stuff to basically set up an in-room gym. It took a while to get unpacked, and as I mentioned a lot of Zoom calls, a lot of phone calls. It’s going to be a long time being away from the family, so I’m just trying to stay connected there.”
Carlisle said there were no hiccups in the first practice, and that the Mavs will be back on the court again on Saturday. In the meantime, he just want hi
s players to soak in everything and go with the flow.
“A lot of things in life, when you get in a difficult time or unusual situations, you try to normalize,” Carlisle said. “I’m not sure we really want to do that here. I want to breathe in the uniqueness of this experience.
“As I mentioned, our guys have had a really terrific approach and attitude about coming here knowing that there’s going to be limitations and stuff like that, and knowing that at the end of the day we just have each other. The time passed surprisingly fast. Now that we’re out of quarantine and we’re in the gym again ,it’s just going to fly by again. We ‘re really pleased to be here. Day 1 was good and we look forward to Day 2.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
Share and comment