Nowitzki Has Knee Surgery, Likely Out Six Weeks

"The bad news swept across the Dallas Mavericks headquarters with all the passion of a race car driver on an open track.

Dirk Nowitzki has been grounded after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Friday morning. The 7-foot forward is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

It is a devastating blow for the Mavs, who were already trying to incorporate eight new players.

"It's never going to be easy to lose a game-changer for six weeks," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We know that, but we're going to have to make up for it in other areas. We're going to have to play with grit and guts, and we're going to have to raise our level of efficiency in all areas. We're going to be smallish a lot and we're going to have to make that work for us."

The regular season starts Oct. 30 when the Mavs travel to Los Angeles to play a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

"Six weeks, that's a lot of games," center Brandan Wright said. "We've got guys that need to step up and keep improving. We've got to play hard, we've got to lift our level, we've got to get some guys stepping up, we've got to focus more and we just got to stay healthy.""

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