Luka is close to returning, and the next one will be Kairi.

LOS ANGELES — Luka Doncic returned to the Mavericks on Wednesday and looks set to be back in action ahead of Friday’s practice in Sacramento, Jason Kidd said ahead of the Mavericks-Clippers game.

Doncic missed his third game in a row with a bruised right heel.

“I can tell you that he worked and was treated in Dallas,” Kidd said. “Everything goes well. He was on trial. Let’s see if we can get him a job tomorrow (Friday) evening and then we’ll talk about whether he can go on Friday or Saturday.”

Kidd later signaled that Doncic could play Friday in Sacramento for the first of two consecutive games.

Asked about the adjustments that will need to be made on the fly, Kidd said: “There will be a couple of adjustments here. There will be one today (in Irving’s debut). It’s actually a great dress rehearsal for Kai because he can do it before LD and then make adjustments with LD.”

Kidd said everything is decided when it comes to how Doncic and Irving will be used.

“We’re going to have different rotations, different lineups,” Kidd said. “This is a dress rehearsal. Our record will be what it is. Hopefully it will be a high enough seed that we don’t play the game.

“But we need to know the answers to the test before taking it in April. To be able to keep these two on the court and Luka will play the whole (first) quarter and Kai will come out early and then Kai will lead the second group. At some point, we’ll have to talk to Luka and maybe get him out early, turn everything around and let Kai go. It’s just different things that we’ll discuss.”

According to Kidd, the role of everyone else other than Luka or Kairi will also be critical.

“The guys in the locker room who will be on the floor with these two have to make adjustments,” he said. “Look at the shots they take of just LD lying on the floor, wide open. There will be quite a lot of wide-open shots of these two on the floor.”

LeBron’s reaction: Kidd and the Mavericks weren’t in the Crypto.com arena on Tuesday when LeBron James broke the NBA scoring record.

He did it with the disappearance of one leg, which was tucked into Dirk Nowitzki’s heyday touch.

“LeBron did an incredible job,” Kidd said. “Being able to do it with such an atmosphere was incredible. It’s well deserved. Coming into the league as a first passer to now become the all-time scoring leader in NBA history is something we will probably never see again because he will play until he is 50.”

What about the shot that knocked off Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s mark?

“Fade out is cool,” Kidd said. “I thought he was going to do it on duty. But Oklahoma City handled the tilt well and didn’t let him go up, so he found another way to do it.”

Clippers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who replaced head coach Tai Liu, who was in a bad mood, paid tribute to Abdul-Jabbar’s legacy: “An amazing achievement. I think the majority focused on points, overtaking Karim. But when I look at what Kareem has done on and off the court and compare it to a lot of the things LeBron has done on and off the court, it doesn’t happen without Kareem making sacrifices and going through what he did, especially in the beginning. his career. The game has come a long way.”

Finally, the deadline will pass: The NBA trade deadline is at 2:00 pm Dallas time on Thursday.

The Mavericks made a splash on Monday with Kyrie Irving. But, as always, there is still a lot of talk around the league.

This will definitely be a breathtaking moment for everyone when the deadline is up.

“In the entire league, this is the hardest part because of the trade deadlines,” Kidd said. “It used to be because of the All-Star break. Everyone was planning a trip to Cabo or Hawaii. So right now everyone is looking at Twitter, waiting for (something to happen).

“Come tomorrow at noon, we will be glad that we can move forward. But that is the nature of this business. There is no easy way around this. You can do your best for the team you work for, as long as you are not told otherwise.

Twitter: @ESefko