Dirk Nowitzki: Update on Dallas Mavericks Star's Back Injury

UPDATE: Friday, March 2 at 1:10 p.m. EST by Michael Dixon

Garland Gillen of the Associated Press tweeted some good news for Nowitzki, the Mavericks, and their fans. 

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#Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle said the plan is for Dirk Nowitzki to play against the #Hornets tonight.

— Garland Gillen (@garlandgillen) March 2, 2012"

Logic would say that they'll work to get him a little more rest than normal, but if he's playing, Dirk will likely be at full strength. 

Update: Thursday, March 1 at 10:50 a.m. EST by Alex Kay

Dirk Nowitzki left well before halftime against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, and most likely never should have started in the game in the first place.

According to Dwain Price of The Star-Telegram, the German superstar knew prior to the game that something was awry.

"He had a back issue and he felt something in warmups and tried to play," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.

The coach realized it was stupid to play his best guy under those circumstances, which is why he yanked him off the court so quickly. 

"

“He clearly wasn’t moving the way he needs to be moving, so we pulled the plug. So he’ll get treatment and we’ll see where we are Friday [in New Orleans].”

"

Keep it tuned here throughout the next two days to see how Dirk's back is feeling and if he will play against the Hornets. 

Update: Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 11:44 p.m. EST

Dirk Nowitzki remains optimistic about his chances of playing Friday night against New Orleans. According to ESPN's Jeff Caplan, Nowitzki said,

"

"If I'm out there 50 percent, I'm not really helping much anyway, so [I] decided to take the night off, hopefully get some good treatment [Thursday] and have a big game on Friday. We definitely need to stop the bleeding. ... Hopefully, I'll be 100 percent."

"

This isn’t exactly the greatest way for a second half of the season to start, but it has to be encouraging news for Mavs fans who obviously have to be concerned about their superstar going down at this stage of the season.

Update: Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 10:15 p.m. EST

Dirk Nowtizki has been slow to regain his form that led the Dallas Mavericks to the 2011 NBA championship, and just as things were coming together, there has been another setback.

Dirk didn’t even make it to halftime before leaving Wednesday night’s game against Memphis. Check back as we update with the latest on the All-Star’s health.

The news could be a lot worse for fans in Dallas. It sounds like Dirk left with a pain in his back that will not keep him out of action for very long, according to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com:

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Dirk Nowitzki (lower back tightness) is out for the rest of the night. He's listed as day-to-day.

— Earl K. Sneed (@EKS_MavsNBA) March 1, 2012"

Nowitzki looked slow in the first quarter, jogging at times in transition and playing less-than-stellar defense. Clearly, something wasn’t quite right. He re-entered the game in the second quarter for just a few minutes before checking out with one point, four rebounds and an assist on 0-of-1 shooting from the field.

Lower back injuries don’t just magically go away, and it will be interesting to see how quickly Nowitzki is forced back into action. With a road game Friday at New Orleans and a home contest against the Utah Jazz the next day, it’s likely Dirk could be out of action until next Monday in a huge road game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

He missed four games in the middle of the season with a knee issue that was really code for being out of shape. Yet since returning he has averaged 23.9 points and 8.5 rebounds while hitting 45 percent of his shots.

For the season, Nowitzki has averaged 19.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists.