Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki will miss the next four games to improve his conditioning and rest his sore right knee.

"We're going to shut Dirk down for four games, from game activity,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "At this point, we feel he needs an uninterrupted eight days of work to resolve some physical issues and some conditioning issues. This is the decision of (athletic trainer) Casey Smith and me."

Nowitzki is averaging 17.5 points per game, five below his career average.

"If it were up to Dirk, he would play," Carlisle said. "But right now, we feel the right thing is to take this time, get some things resolved and hopefully by next Sunday, he'll be feeling a lot better and ready to go.''