dallas mavericks

Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry is scheduled to have surgery Friday after taking an elbow to the face during a game.

The Mavericks say a timetable for Terry's return would be determined after the surgery. Terry's left eye was nearly swollen shut when he left the Dallas locker room after Wednesday night's 112-109 victory over Minnesota.

Andre Miller scored a career-high 52 points, including 25 in the fourth quarter and overtime, and Juwan Howard hit a jumper with 44.8 seconds left to lift the Portland Trail Blazers past the Dallas Mavericks 114-112 on Saturday night.

Jordan Farmar led seven players in double figures with 24 points and the Los Angeles Lakers trounced the Western Conference's second-best team in a 131-96 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night.

Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh, right, leans into Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitziki , of Germany, as he drives toward the basket during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Saturday, Nov.

It seems every NBA pre-season everyone lines up to say the same thing about the San Antonio Spurs. The running joke is that each and every year they are one step closer to a Social Security check than they are to a NBA title.

In most years this seemed to fire up the Spurs and they would prove everyone wrong and go out and win, or at least contend for the title.

That is not exactly how the 2008-09 season went.

On one hand the Dallas Mavericks are a team that has somehow managed to stay relevant in a tough NBA Western Division.

On another they are a team that has never recovered from an historic collapse in the 2006 NBA finals. While they seem to be a great team on paper, their Western Conference opponents seem to take them less and less seriously.

With that in mind the Mavericks made a few changes of the off season.

Germany will be without Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki at next month's European Championship in Poland.

The German basketball federation said Friday that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban would not allow Nowitzki to take part in the championship, even though the forward has played for Germany at several major international events before.