"Wednesday was the first day that Nowitzki has done court work and while he was limited to shooting and dribbling with no full running or cutting, it was therapeutic for him and the Mavericks to see him working.

But he said the recovery process from his October knee surgery remains slow and he's not close to returning.

"It (the knee) is better," Nowitzki said. "But now, obviously, not doing anything for six weeks, there's a lot of strength that you lose. Your quad muscle gets weak. And so the last week or so we increased the work load and tried to get the quad strength back.

"We said from the beginning the only way I could get back on the court was when the swelling is gone and the quad strength is back. And so we got a long way to go.

"Now, it's already December 5th. I don't think middle of December is happening now to be honest. That was my goal a couple weeks ago. But the swelling was in there too long and it held me back too long and I couldn't start working soon enough."