Dallas Mavericks’ forward Dirk Nowitzki said in the locker room afterward a 117-114 overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Friday night that he needs to work on getting warmed up quicker. The 34-year-old says he is too stiff to start the games and not offensively ready.

It’s been nearly a month since Nowitzki returned from arthroscopic right knee surgery. To him, that means he’s roughly through the amount of time that training camp would have lasted.

“Basically, with me not having training camp, training camp is almost over,” Nowitzki said. “Hopefully I can get in rhythm a little better. I feel like I got to be a little more aggressive early in games to get myself going, to get some shots there and just have a little more pep in my step in the first half so I don’t always start 1-for-5, 1-for-6 and then keep chasing some shots.”

“Now I’m getting to the point where I definitely want to feel the ball,” he said. “At least make the defense collapse and kick it out or make a move. I think compared to where I was two or three weeks ago it’s way, way better. It’s miles-and-miles better, but I still feel like I got some ways to go.”

via Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News