Mavericks-Kings preview: Quick turnaround against Fox, Sabonis and Co.

The Mavericks should be getting used to playing without much recovery time between games.

This will be their third set of back-to-back games in the past two weeks.

The good news is they are 2-0 on the second night of those situations with both of the wins coming on the road (at Orlando and Washington).

The degree of difficulty goes up Sunday evening when the Mavericks play the Sacramento Kings at American Airlines Center.

It’s a 6:30 p.m. tipoff, which means that the Mavericks are losing an hour off of their usual rest time for a 7:30 p.m. start.

As Luka Dončić said when he was leaving his interview session after Saturday’s 132-125 loss in Milwaukee, the Mavericks should talk to the NBA about making it a 7:30 start.

If only it were that easy.

But at least the Mavericks had two days off on Thursday and Friday, which turned this into a four-games-in-six-days proposition. Coach Jason Kidd played in a different era.

“Four in five (nights), they don’t even know what that is,” he said of today’s players. “A lot of times, we didn’t know where we were. It was a man’s game. You came to the paint, you got hit. They didn’t care if you were 19 or 20 years old. You couldn’t be soft. You had to earn your stripes. The keys weren’t given to you, you had to earn them.”

Ah, but that was then and this is now. And in this era, four games in six days counts as a challenging stretch, especially when the fourth game is against Sacramento, which is coming off a win in San Antonio on Wednesday.

Here’s what else to look for when the Mavericks meet the Kings for the first time this season:

• The Kings boast a solid overall lineup built around Domantas Sabonis, De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Bradley. Fox is averaging better than 32 points per game, but has played just six games so does not yet qualify among the league leaders in scoring. Sabonis is averaging 19.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 7.3 assists.
• This is the third stop on a six-game trip for the Kings, which started with a 125-110 win at the Lakers followed by a 129-120 triumph in San Antonio on Friday. Overall, the Kings have won five in a row.
• The Mavericks have won four of the last five against the Kings, including three in a row in Dallas.
• In one of their first games together last February, Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić combined for 55 points at Sacramento but the Mavericks fell in overtime.
• After this, the Mavericks will have two days without games before hitting the road again in Los Angeles, where they will play both the Lakers and the Clippers, bridging the Thanksgiving holiday.

SACRAMENTO KINGS (7-4) at MAVERICKS (9-4)

• When, where: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, American Airlines Center, Dallas.
• TV: Bally Sports Southwest.
• Radio: 97.1 FM The Freak; 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish).