Mavericks put no timetable on Andrew Bogut’s return from hamstring injury

Center Andrew Bogut won’t be playing any games for the Dallas Mavericks any time soon.

In a season plagued with injuries, the 12-year veteran will miss Sunday’s 1 p.m. tipoff at American Airlines Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a strained right hamstring. But that’s not the worst part of Bogut’s saga.

“He’s probably out for the foreseeable near future,” coach Rick Carlisle said after Saturday’s practice. “We don’t consider this serious.

“But we want to make sure that he’s not only feeling good, but he’s got his legs under him a little bit before we put him back out there.”

The Mavs have not set a timetable for Bogut’s return.

“I hope it’s not too long,’’ Carlisle said. “But we don’t want to mess around with this.”

Dallas, 12-27, is last in the NBA in rebounding with 37.9 rebounds per game. And Bogut leads the Mavs with 9.1 rebounds in only 23.5 minutes per game.

The Mavs don’t like the idea of Bogut shuffling in and out of the lineup while trying to rehab his hamstring injury.

Bogut missed 11 games from Dec. 7-26, and then returned to play two games. After that, the 32-year-old sat out Dec. 30 at Golden State and then played four more games before not dressing for Thursday’s game in Mexico City against the Phoenix Suns.

Carlisle acknowledged that forward Dirk Nowitzki and guard J.J. Barea were shuffled in and out of the lineup amid their injuries and were basically ineffective in the process. He doesn’t want that back-and-forth exchange with Bogut, whom the Mavs acquired in a trade last summer with the Warriors.

“The second time with Barea we took extra time to make sure that he was really ready to go,” Carlisle said. “We did the same with Dirk.

“We just want to make sure Andrew is completely healthy and feeling good before putting him back in NBA games.”

Mavs, Cowboys go back-to-back

Unless their game Sunday at AAC against the Timberwolves goes into overtime, the Mavericks won’t have to worry about their contest overlapping with Sunday’s divisional playoff game in Arlington between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers.

The Mavs were initially slated to tip off against the Timberwolves at 3 p.m. But the NBA allowed the Mavs to move the starting time to 1 p.m., so it wouldn’t conflict with the Cowboys, who kick off at 3:40 p.m.

“It’s great,” Carlisle said of the time change. “It gives our fans a chance to come see our game and hit their DVRs and order pizza and turn that thing on at the end of the first quarter and basically watch it without any pauses.

“I don’t know if I have any game plans for NBA games. But, I tell you what, I’ll come up with a good plan for Cowboys games.”

An NBA game lasts around 2 hours, 20 minutes. So theoretically fans could watch both the Mavs and Cowboys from beginning to end.

“We’re behind them all the way and we’ll be watching once our game’s over with,’’ Carlisle said of the Cowboys. “Once we get through our five overtimes tomorrow.’’

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Mavericks put no timetable on Andrew Bogut’s return from hamstring injury."