DeAndre Jordan will be center of attention in Dallas

Doc Rivers doesn’t think the decibel distinction matters. Whether Dallas Mavericks fans go boo or booooooooooo in DeAndre Jordan’s first game at American Airlines Center since the center spurned their team in free agency shouldn’t have an impact.

“Clearly, there’s going to be more energy from the crowd, maybe it will be a playoff atmosphere or something like that,” Rivers said about the Clippers’ nationally televised game against the Mavericks on Wednesday, “but at the end of the day, their job is not to cheer for us anyway.”

The Mavericks’ home court is known as one of the NBA’s more raucous arenas, with decibel levels pushing past 115 during their run to the franchise’s first championship in 2011. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration considers 115 decibels or above dangerous because it can cause permanent hearing loss.

Earplugs could be just as handy as ankle tape for the Clippers as they try to navigate the noise. Jordan will surely hear it whenever he touches the ball or shoots free throws after backing out of his five-day commitment to the Mavericks this summer to re-sign with the Clippers for four years and $87.6 million.

“It’s going to be hostile,” Jordan said, “but it’s supposed to be.”

It might help that these teams already played Oct. 29 at Staples Center, with the Clippers winning by 16 points in a game that included a couple of physical exchanges between Jordan and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki.

Jordan inadvertently elbowed Nowitzki in the head, leading to some woozy moments for the Mavericks’ 7-footer. Nowitzki then delivered a hard foul on Jordan, prompting Jordan to flex his arms as players from both teams exchanged words.

Clippers forward Blake Griffin said the challenge facing Jordan on Wednesday will be to remain his usual rebound-grabbing, shot-blocking self amid the frenzy.

“Sometimes when you want to beat a team really badly and you have a lot of extra motivation, you force it,” Griffin said. “So it’s our job to make sure he stays even, he stays just who he is. We need him to be who he is.”

Griffin acknowledged he’s been looking forward to this game for a while, eager to find out what kind of shenanigans Mavericks owner Mark Cuban might have devised to try to rattle Jordan.

Cuban told reporters covering his team in New Orleans on Tuesday that he recalled his courtship of Jordan as a weeklong whirlwind that included “a good drunk at Manhattan Beach, but other than that there was not much there.”

Cuban said he saved all of his text messages from Jordan, including the final one at 11:56 p.m. on July 7, when Jordan told Cuban he was on a date when he was actually with Griffin. The previous night, Cuban said, he asked Jordan if he had started working on his jump shot.

“He said, ‘Pick a spot you want me. Face-up banker?’” Cuban said, recalling the exchange. “I’m like, ‘I like the face-up banker.’ The last text was Tuesday night. … I never heard from him since.”

Jordan certainly will hear from Mavericks fans upon his return to the city he nearly called home.

“I want everyone to have a good time screaming and yelling and getting it off their chests, because that’s what sports is supposed to be about,” Cuban said. “Look, this is not thermonuclear war. This is a basketball game, and for fans, it’s supposed to be fun.”

Would Cuban participate in the booing of Jordan?

“Hell yeah, I’ll be booing,” Cuban said. “Nah, there’s no point.”

Strategy session

The Clippers twice fouled Memphis’ Marc Gasol in the final six seconds Monday while holding a three-point lead so that the Grizzlies couldn’t take a potentially tying three-pointer. It’s a strategy that Rivers said he’s going to implement “100% of the time” the rest of the season.

“Our league has a lot of players that make threes,” Rivers said. “I’ll take the chance of what happened, and it almost burned us.”

A botched box-out on one of Gasol’s missed free throws led to Redick fouling Gasol with three seconds left and the Grizzlies trailing by two points. But Gasol made only one of two free throws and the Clippers held on for the 94-92 victory.

Not like clockwork

Clippers point guard Chris Paul played 32 minutes Monday in his return from a strained right groin that had sidelined him the previous game, matching his season average entering the game.

Rivers had said Paul would be on a minutes restriction before the game, but the Clippers’ staff apparently lost count.

“Our math was wrong then,” Rivers said lightheartedly before referring to trainer Jasen Powell, “because J.P. told me he had 21 minutes when I put him in with eight minutes left. What school did J.P. go to? I mean, honestly.”

Follow Ben Bolch on Twitter @latbbolch