Our weekly look at how coach Rick Carlisle is managing the minutes of Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd during this 66-game schedule:

DALLAS -- The Dallas Mavericks got off easy Wednesday night, blowing out the undermanned Denver Nuggets and relegating Dirk Nowitzki and especially Jason Kidd to fourth-quarter bench duty.

That was supremely important because the Mavs will play Friday night at hard-nosed Philadelphia without Jason Terry (who didn't play Wednesday due to a mild right quad strain and will miss Friday for personal reasons), without Delonte West, who fractured and dislocated his right ring finger against Denver, and quite possibly without Rodrigue Beaubois, who is mourning the death of his father.

They hope to have Terry back for Sunday's game against Linsanity.

"We obviously have some upheaval right now with the roster and guys with injuries and personal situations," Carlisle said. "It's a bit of a scramble, but we've got a good scramble team, and we're going to have to just piece it together here."

Kidd has played four games since his return from a strained right calf that kept him out of action for six games. He's missed 10 games overall, four in January with back spasms. Carlisle would prefer to play Kidd around 25 minutes a night. Thirty-two minutes appear to be the max, the reason why Kidd sat out the entire second overtime against Portland.

"We obviously have some upheaval right now with the roster and guys with injuries and personal situations," coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's a bit of a scramble, but we've got a good scramble team, and we're going to have to just piece it together here."

J-Kidd
Season averages: 28.3 mpg, 4.7 ppg, 5.4 apg, 4.6 rpg
The breakdown: Kidd's numbers have ticked upward in his four games back even though Rick Carlisle has managed to limit his minutes to 26.5 minutes a game. Kidd had his best scoring game of the season Wednesday, knocking down 4-of-6 from beyond the arc for 13 points in 22 minutes. In his four-game return, Kidd has averaged 7.3 points and 6.3 assists. Perhaps most encouraging is that Kidd seems to be finding his shooting range having made 9-of-20 shots overall (45 percent) and 8-of-17 from 3-point range (47 percent). That's major improvement considering Kidd just cracked 30 percent in both categories. Kidd's minutes might be next to crack 30 because of the injury/personal issues that have reduced the Mavs backcourt to Kidd, Vince Carter and Dominique Jones for the next game or two.

Dirk
Season averages: 32.2 mpg, 18.2 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.3 apg
The breakdown: After a sudden and remarkable shooting performance over four games, it ended on a 44-minute night in which Nowitzki was just 7-of-20 from the floor. In the next two games, his minutes decreasing to 32 and 25 minutes, his shooting also decreased to 10-of-27 from the floor. In the last three games Nowitzki is just 17-of-47 from the floor and 1-of-8 from the 3-point line. The Mavs have managed to win through Dirk's dip, but it does return to the discussion to whether Dirk is all the way back 0r if those sizzling four games were simply a hot streak.