When the Dallas Mavericks host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday evening at American Airlines Center, it will be a milestone game for Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle.
That's because Sunday will mark career game number 1,000 as an NBA head coach for Carlisle, who is 590-409 in his career thus far.
And as expected, when asked about reaching such a number after practice on Saturday, he admitted he didn't realize he was on the cusp of reaching such a round number.
"For me? I hadn't thought about it at all and I'm not counting. Thanks for asking though," Carlisle responded.
Even though Carlisle was downplaying the significance of Sunday's game, Mavs veteran Richard Jefferson, who has played against Carlisle-coached teams for a large part of his career, both in the Eastern and Western Conferences, knows what an impressive achievement that is.
"It is huge, especially when you see coaches coming from college, the coaching carousel. And to tell you the truth, he's a fairly young coach to reach that number. When you look at he's been a part of the NBA now for almost 30 years, so it's a compliment to him. It's a compliment to his coaching staff, the people he's surrounded himself by, which is really a true test of your intelligence, who you surround yourself with because those are the type of people that can help give you a long career," Jefferson said.
Jefferson, who signed with Dallas this summer on a one-year contract as a free agent, admits that after seeing the hallmarks of Carlisle's teams from earlier in his career he knew that was someone he wanted to one day play for and finally getting that chance was a big reason why he signed with the Mavs this past offseason.
"I've played against him in the playoffs three different times, when he was in Detroit and Indiana and then obviously here in Dallas when I was in San Antonio, and just knowing that they're always been well coached, well-disciplined teams and he's one of the reasons why I chose to come here," Jefferson said.
The Mavs beat the Lakers on Friday night to snap their two-game losing streak, but facing the Thunder, who have won 10 of their last 13, is always a stiff challenge and a true measuring stick type of game in the Western Conference.
"Oklahoma City is a team that has a higher gear than a lot of these other teams athletically. And so because of that you've got to just be really geared up to play through long possessions, to get back quickly in transition defense," Carlisle said. "Every game's a measuring stick. This one's probably a little bit more so in some ways."
Carlisle did offer some good news on both Monta Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki, who have been slowed by illness earlier this week, saying both will indeed play on Sunday.
"I think Monta's still having some problems but he practiced (on Saturday) and I think he'll play," Carlisle said. "He just doesn't miss games, but he's not out of the woods yet. Dirk seems to be doing OK."
And even though Kevin Durant may or may not play for OKC on Sunday, the Mavs will still have to contend with Russell Westbrook, who is averaging 33 points over his last 10 games.
"Right now, there's no more lethal scorer in the game than him, so a lot of attention has to be focused on him," Carlisle said. "There's a possibility Durant could play unless you guys have heard different and so this team causes a lot of matchup problems, which they do every year."
So, even though it's career game No. 1,000 for Carlisle, the focus for him and the Mavericks remains the same-do all they can to beat the Thunder and then start preparing for their final game of 2014 on Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards.
Jefferson has only been playing for Carlisle for a few months, but admits he's not surprised to hear his head coach downplaying any added meaning Sunday's game might hold for him.
"Most coaches and even great players, they'll take a deep breath, they'll go out and have a beer and celebrate it and then they're on to the next thing," Jefferson said. "If you keep looking at what you've accomplished, you're never going to continue to move forward. You might rest on your laurels and that's not what he is."
