Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, recovering from a strained right Achilles tendon, told ESPN.com on Thursday that he has begun to resume on-court work as he moves toward a return to the lineup.

But Nowitzki stressed that he'll need to get through a full-speed practice or two this weekend with no setbacks before he's cleared to play.

"It's definitely better, but I really haven't done much yet," Nowitzki told ESPN.com. "Today was good, but we didn't go anything close to full speed. Just started moving on the court a bit.

"We don't want to rush anything and go back to where we were last week. So if I feel anything this weekend, they're going to ease off again. Obviously I want to play in the Garden on Monday (against the Knicks) and I want to play in Boston (on Wednesday) -- two of my favorite road spots. But I just don't know at this point if it's going to happen."

Nowitzki suffered the Achilles strain in the Mavericks' season opener at Indiana on Oct. 26. After missing the next two games due to illness, Nowitzki struggled with his movement in a road defeat Nov. 2 at Utah and again in a home loss Nov. 4 to Portland before shutting things down at halftime against the Blazers.

While the Mavericks were in California this week, splitting road games against the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, Nowitzki stayed behind in Dallas to receive treatment from his personal German physiotherapist Jens Joppich.

On Nov. 5, the Mavericks announced that Nowitzki, 38, would miss at least one week due to the Achilles discomfort.

Dallas has reached the playoffs in 15 of the past 16 seasons. The lone exception was 2012-13, when Nowitzki, who ranks as the NBA's sixth-all-time leading scorer, missed the opening two months after needing arthroscopic knee surgery.‎