Dirk Nowitzki "Shut Down" Over the Weekend, Hopeful to Return Next Week - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

BGMaverick9 · 01-07-2011, 02:50 PM

http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2011/1/...turn-next-week

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Dirk Nowitzki spoke to the media on Friday afternoon to give a progress report on his sprained right knee. The MVP candidate has missed six consecutive games due to the injury, the longest stint of games Nowitzki has missed due to an injury. The Mavericks are 2-4 during the stretch without Nowitzki. He injured the knee early in the second quarter on December 27th at Oklahoma City and his injury has been classified as day-to-day. Today, Coach Rick Carlisle ruled Nowitzki out for the game against the Orlando Magic on Saturday night. "He’s making progress and there haven’t been anything setbacks or anything like that," Carlisle said. "It’s just not time yet."

"I decided to shut it down here for the weekend," Nowitzki said. He mentioned that he tried to work out the knee prior to the Oklahoma City game. Movements involving jumping and pushing off gave him issues, so they decided to regroup over the weekend and start fresh next week. After the game with the Orlando Magic on Saturday, the Mavericks will be off until Wednesday when they travel to Indiana to play the Pacers.

Over the last the six games, the Mavericks have tried to do everything that they can to stay competitive in games. Key players have logged heavy minutes, they have tweaked their starting lineup and they’ve searched on the bench for sparks of energy to no avail. At this point for Dallas, it’s just all about a matter of survival. "I think we would like to have a full team, but the NBA is like that," Jason Kidd said on Thursday night as he described the challenges of the regular season grind. "It’s a fine line. It only takes a quick tenth-of-a-second for someone to get hurt." Despite the injury concerns, even to their franchise player, Kidd remains confident that the team will find a way to make it all work. "We feel we’re deep enough and we’ve got enough guys in here to get wins," he said. "You can look at it so many different ways, but I think at the end of the day we’ll be a better team with Dirk getting back and us continuing to play the way that we’re playing."

Adding Nowitzki's injury to Caron Butler’s season-ending injury, the Mavericks are left with a talented but depleted roster. Despite the setbacks, Carlisle is not concerned with the injury situation. "I lost a whole team in the brawl year," he said. "This is nothing." When Carlisle spoke to the media, he continued to say that the team emphasis still needs to be centered around defense and rebounding. Having to deal with the adjustments to personnel is just a part the regular season and Carlisle still believes in his injury-riddled team. "My belief in these other guys has never been higher," Carlisle said.

During the rehabilitation process, Nowitzki has been restrained from rigors of daily practices. Instead, he’s been building up a solid sweat by riding a stationary bike, running underwater and he gets daily treatment. For Nowitzki, the times are tougher when the games begin and he has to go into cheerleader mode. "It’s been a frustrating time for me, obviously, watching from the sidelines," said Nowitzki. "We lost a bunch of games where I think I could have helped in the fourth quarter, so it’s been frustrating. The team is holding it down and playing hard."

Nowitzki has had to battle numerous ankle injuries over his career and he's been able to bounce back from them quickly. At the time of the knee injury, Dirk believed he would be able to recover quickly but it hasn't worked out that way. "It’s frustrating. When it first happened I never thought I was going to miss two weeks," said Nowitzki. "I guess I took the whole situation a little too lightly, but I don’t have a lot of experience with knee injuries, that’s a good thing. Hopefully, these next couple of days it will respond good and I’ll be ready to go." Whenever Nowitzki does come back, he understands that the work he's doing with cardio will not be enough to allow him to hit the ground running. "Games are obviously a different beast," he said. "It’s going to take me a couple of games to get back into it (game shape)."

For now, the Mavericks will continue to take a patient approach with Nowitzki’s rehabilitation as they are focused on the big picture. They know that championships aren't necessarily won or lost at this point in the season. The team is looking to continue learning along the way and get as healthy as possible for the playoff run. "I'm not worried," Nowitzki said. "I don't think it's anything that could get worse now or will be an issue for the rest of the year. We're trying to make sure it is all gone and I can play injury-free for the rest of the year." If it takes a two week stretch to get Nowitzki healthy, then so be it. The Mavericks understand that the NBA will not stop on their behalf and they'll continue battling.

Underdog · 01-07-2011, 02:59 PM

Like I mentioned in another thread - I'd like to see Dirk back in time for the San Antonio game a week from today...

(but do whatever it takes to get healthy, we can't afford to lose Dirk again!)

Dim499 · 01-07-2011, 03:02 PM

not a doctor here, but sounds like knee cancer

Rick41 · 01-07-2011, 03:09 PM

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Originally Posted by Dim499

not a doctor here, but sounds like knee cancer

Do you play one on tv so this could at least be credible?

rabbitproof · 01-07-2011, 03:32 PM

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Originally Posted by Dim499

not a doctor here, but sounds like knee cancer

haha!

this is disappointing but not the end of the world, still it must be asked. is the dallas training staff the anti-phoenix? maybe just below-average?

BGMaverick9 · 01-07-2011, 03:38 PM

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Originally Posted by rabbitproof

haha!

this is disappointing but not the end of the world, still it must be asked. is the dallas training staff the anti-phoenix? maybe just below-average?

I'm pretty sure Casey Smith is considered one of the best trainers in the league...he was good enough for Team USA.

For the other end of the spectrum of concern, you could easily look at Tyson Chandler's 2010-2011 as an example.

rabbitproof · 01-07-2011, 03:45 PM

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Originally Posted by BGMaverick9

I'm pretty sure Casey Smith is considered one of the best trainers in the league...he was good enough for Team USA.

For the other end of the spectrum of concern, you could easily look at Tyson Chandler's 2010-2011 as an example.

True, true.. it's disappointing to have the 'setbacks' and 'delays' we've had this season though. Will see if it becomes a trend.

BGMaverick9 · 01-07-2011, 03:58 PM

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Originally Posted by rabbitproof

True, true.. it's disappointing to have the 'setbacks' and 'delays' we've had this season though. Will see if it becomes a trend.

I've said it in different threads, this team is clearly taking a different approach this season. The results were going good and they know what they had. Now they're working on the secondary pieces, the injuries have allowed them to do that. They're willing to sacrifice games 30-50 to get charging in games 60-82.

Kidd Karma · 01-07-2011, 04:18 PM

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Originally Posted by BGMaverick9

I've said it in different threads, this team is clearly taking a different approach this season. The results were going good and they know what they had. Now they're working on the secondary pieces, the injuries have allowed them to do that. They're willing to sacrifice games 30-50 to get charging in games 60-82.

Definitely, get the 9-12 guys good amounts of experience so when you need to buy a few minutes against a Howard, you can throw in Ian or Ajinca to battle him down. Or you can throw a Jones on the wing if we need to body up against a JRich or Lebron.

xrobx · 01-07-2011, 10:00 PM

"Movements involving jumping and pushing off gave him issues, so they decided to regroup over the weekend and start fresh next week."

what does this even mean? regroup and start fresh? does that mean he re aggravated the injury and will need another couple weeks?

She_Growls · 01-07-2011, 10:10 PM

Relax peeps.....allow the big German time to heal.

b_o_r · 01-07-2011, 10:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Kidd Karma

Definitely, get the 9-12 guys good amounts of experience so when you need to buy a few minutes against a Howard, you can throw in Ian or Ajinca to battle him down. Or you can throw a Jones on the wing if we need to body up against a JRich or Lebron.

Carlisle isn't given 9-12 guys a good amount of experience. Mahimni has totaled 15 minutes since Dirk went down. Jones, after playing 21 minutes against the Cavs has played 14 minutes in the last two games. Alexis has received 3 straight DNP's since the Spurs game.

frankvizza · 01-07-2011, 10:54 PM

i'm afraid to say this but are mavs are doomed they look horible out there , i no dirk will help but i think we should go after a granger or take on elton brands contract with iggy this team needs to get better quick ,, another loss tomorro puts at 10 losses with lakers on our asses

BGMaverick9 · 01-07-2011, 10:57 PM

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Originally Posted by xrobx

"Movements involving jumping and pushing off gave him issues, so they decided to regroup over the weekend and start fresh next week."

what does this even mean? regroup and start fresh? does that mean he re aggravated the injury and will need another couple weeks?

Basically, there was no sense in trying to keep pushing if he knew it was giving him a problem, just avoid any attempt to test the knee on the court. Stick to the underwater running and the bike for now...and try again on Monday.

JHT · 01-08-2011, 01:58 AM

Roddy Part 2

rabbitproof · 01-08-2011, 06:03 AM

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Originally Posted by BGMaverick9

I've said it in different threads, this team is clearly taking a different approach this season. The results were going good and they know what they had. Now they're working on the secondary pieces, the injuries have allowed them to do that. They're willing to sacrifice games 30-50 to get charging in games 60-82.

I like that approach. You shouldn't use 82 games to try to be #1 the whole time. They should be used to get the team to peak as the #1 team by game 82.

It's the "he'll be back at X" and then X+Y time passes and they're still not back, that's the disappointing part. If it's a five week injury, it's a five week injury. If you expect players to come back in two weeks and it takes four, it reads of misdiagnosis or improper treatment.