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