The NBA schedule can often be a strange one, and that wackiness rears itself tonight as the Dallas Mavericks make their inaugural appearance at Barclays Center to take on the Brooklyn Nets.

After four full months and nearly 60 games, this is the first meeting period between the Nets and Mavs in 2012-13, marking the second straight game where Brooklyn will be facing an opponent they have yet to see. Nets interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo mentioned that point when talking about multiple-time All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, whose numbers are a little down due to early-season injury issues but has set season highs in both points (33) and rebounds (20) in the last week.

“I hate to keep belaboring the point, but the schedule can be very unfair; had we played them twice in November or December it would have been infinitely our advantage,” Carlesimo said.

Despite advancing age and that injury that cost him the first third of the season, Nowitzki is still a force, and Carlesimo admitted that the 7-footer is still a “horrible” matchup for many.

“He’s a problem because of the skill set he is; he’s big, he can shoot threes, he can put the ball on the floor, he can post you up, and they do a lot of things for him,” Carlesimo said. “It’s hard to get a guy big enough that he can’t just shoot over them, because he’s more mobile…he’s one of the best offensive weapons in the league for a long time, so we just have to try to make him work.”

This game also marks the first meeting between Deron Williams and the other team that was a finalist for his services this summer, although Nets interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo said that hadn’t even crossed his mind until he was asked about it earlier today.

“I couldn’t overstate how important his decision to come back here was…and I couldn’t understate how unimportant that backdrop is tonight, at least in my opinion only,” Carlesimo said. “It hadn’t entered my mind, hopefully it hasn’t entered (Deron’s) either.”

In their Barclays debut, Rick Carlisle’s Mavs squad brings with them a pair of a pair of stats that may not bode well for Brooklyn; Dallas averages 101 points per game this season, which is eighth in the NBA, and their bench averages a league-high 40.6 points per game.

“It taxes your matchups; some teams you figure you’re okay with the matchups, but these guys are a problem because they have so many weapons that they’re going to have some mismatches to choose from,” Carlesimo said of the Mavericks’ bench. “They have a lot of excellent individual offensive players, and they have a great system because Rick (Carlisle) is a great offensive coach; it’s not an accident that the bench scores that many points.”

Coming off that Dallas bench will be one man Nets fans are intimately familiar with: swingman Vince Carter, who spent the 2004-05 through 2008-09 seasons in New Jersey and has, in Carlesimo’s opinion, become a much different player even in the span since he’s been gone.

“He’s shooting the heck out of the ball, over 40 percent from three…like Michael Jordan or Jason Kidd, he presented an aerial circus for so long, but as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten a lot more cerebral,” Carlesimo said of Carter. “He’ll take what you give him; he’ll still go inside and beat you up inside, and they’ll still run with him, but his perimeter game has gotten even better as he’s gotten older and he’s using that even more now. Now when you talk about him, you almost start with how good of a three-point shooter he is; that’s probably his primary weapon right now, and in the old days I don’t think you would’ve said that about Vince.”

The Nets have struggled with up tempo teams this year, and their bench may be a little short-handed if both Joe Johnson (sore heel) and MarShon Brooks (sprained right wrist) are both unable to go or limited in their time. Carlesimo said prior to the game that he hadn’t talked to Johnson or trainer Tim Walsh about Johnson’s status, but admitted that he didn’t find out the six-time All-Star wasn’t able to go until right before tipoff in Tuesday’s win over New Orleans.

“I’m assuming Timmy would have come and told me if he (was unable to play); we found out right before the game in New Orleans, but Joe said he felt good (earlier today) and hopefully he’s going to go and MarShon’s going to go.”

That said, with this game being the first of a back-to-back for the Nets – the second game of which is on the road tomorrow night in Chicago – Carlesimo said if Johnson is a go, he might have to be limited simply to save some of what’s in the tank for the Bulls.

“Hopefully we can get minutes out of him both nights,” Carlesimo said, but added that “usually when I say that about someone, they end up playing 40-plus, so we’ll see….Joe will have a lot to say, and hopefully he’ll be very direct if and when it starts to hurt.”

Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroYES