Dirk Nowitzki a game-time decision vs. Clips tonight

Well, this is potentially unfortunate:

Dirk (ankle) rode bike during shootaround, will be game-time decision tonight vs. Clippers.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) January 3, 2014

In case you missed it, Dirk tweaked his ankle on the second play of the Mavs-Wizards game on New Year's Day. As our own Kirk Henderson noted in his recap, he seemed good to go after getting the ankle taped, and would return later in the quarter and finish the game with no apparent issues.

Let's hope this is just the team being cautious with one of their most important players, but obviously the Clippers are one of the better teams in the West, and with the Mavs fighting for playoff positioning even this early in the season, every win is important. Goes without saying that if Dirk is out, that makes it more difficult.

Stay tuned, and we'll update this story as we hear more.