Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki Expects to Return Against OKC Monday

Dallas Mavericks' forward Dirk Nowitzki missed a couple of games with an abductor muscle strain but feels as though he will be ready for a return Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. According to Eddie Sefko of the Dallas News, Dirk will participate in the team's shoot-around and base his decision on how he feels afterwards.“If there’s no setbacks, and I go through the whole shootaround, hopefully I’ll get going tomorrow," said Dirk Nowitzki“The thing is, at Golden State, it was grabbing when I made a fast move. That’s why I couldn’t play. If it’s just tight or sore, I’m not worried about that. If it can’t get any worse, then I want to be out there. If it’s like it was today, I’ll definitely try to go.”The Dallas Mavericks are currently seeded tenth in the Western Conference but have ways to go if they wish to make the playoffs. Dirk's return could help despite his abnormally low seasonal numbers of 14.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. If Dirk can start playing close to how he usually performs, the Maverick may be able to sneak in as the eight seed, but its not very likely considering they will be competing with the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz.Follow @hoopsinjurynews!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.nbainjurynews.com//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-34100676-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();