Dirk Nowitzki to miss at least a week of action for Mavericks

— -- Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki will miss at least a week due to lingering soreness in the 38-year-old legend's right Achilles tendon.

"He's going to be out for a while," coach Rick Carlisle said during his news conference Friday night after the Mavs fell to 0-5 for the first time in franchise history with a 105-95 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. "We'll update you guys in about seven days. He's not going to play at least until then."

Nowitzki, the sixth-leading scorer in NBA history, did not play in the second half of Friday's loss due to the soreness, which has been an issue since late in the preseason. He had five points on 2-of-6 shooting in 16 minutes during the first half.

"He didn't re-injure the Achilles," Carlisle told reporters. "It's just lingering. It's not getting better the way it needs to, so we've got to shut it down."

Nowitzki, a 13-time All-Star who remains the Mavs' franchise player in his 19th NBA season, has led Dallas to the playoffs in 15 of the last 16 seasons. The lone exception was the 2012-13 season, when Nowitzki missed the first two months after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.

"It's bad news, but we'll get through it," Carlisle said in his news conference. "We've gone some periods like this before, but his health is the most important thing. He's more than willing to continue playing, but it's pretty obvious that things aren't right, so we've got to do the right thing here and back him off."

Nowitzki missed the Mavs' second and third games of the season due to an illness and said upon his return that he hoped the Achilles issue had subsided. However, it flared up again after he played 29 minutes in Wednesday's loss to the Utah Jazz.