<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Dirk Nowitzki's left knee has become more important than anything else in the Mavericks' injury-filled universe, including a losing streak that continues to swell. The All-Star will have an MRI today to determine the cause of the swollen knee that kept him out of Sunday's 90-69 loss to the Houston Rockets. The injury occurred in Friday's loss against the Los Angeles Lakers. Without him, the Mavericks were easy pickings for Houston, which had lost four of five before Sunday but had no trouble extending the Mavericks' string of losses to three. Nowitzki all but ruled himself out of tonight's game against Toronto at American Airlines Center. He's officially listed as questionable, as is Michael Finley, who has a bruised left calf. "I hope it's a bruise," Nowitzki said. "But if something else happened, obviously we're in deep trouble. Hopefully we'll get rid of the swelling and I can play. Toronto is probably reaching, but hopefully I'll play by Thursday [against the Lakers]." Nowitzki doesn't remember injuring the knee. He thought he might have bruised it on a fall out of bounds against the Lakers, but he finished the game and said he felt fine. But at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the knee started aching. Nowitzki is optimistic about the injury because he was able to finish Friday's game. "If I would have torn anything, I would have known about it during the game," he said. "You can usually play through some stuff, but not a torn ligament. If it had been worse, I should have known by now. I'm positive that it's just a bruise." </div> Source
