Facing a month on the NBA sidelines, Andrew Bogut is taking at least one positive from his latest knee injury: it wasn't as bad as the last one.
The Dallas centre does not know how long he'll be out for, but medicos have told him it could range from 10 days to a month.
Bogut suffered the right knee bone bruising early in the Mavericks' 119-101 loss to Charlotte on Monday.
He said the injury induced flashbacks to last season's finals series, where he missed Golden State's past two games against eventual champions Cleveland with another knee problem.
The injury also put the 32-year-old under a cloud for Australia's Rio Olympics campaign in August.
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"It could have been much worse. That's probably the only positive that comes out of it," Bogut said on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).
"I knew it wasn't as bad as the NBA finals. The NBA finals one I heard two cracks, this one I only heard one minor - I heard the bones hit, like a slap.
"So I knew it wasn't that bad. I could walk it off myself, limping."
Despite up-and-down form in his first season for the franchise, his absence spells bad news for the struggling Mavericks.
The Mavericks have won only four games in 2016-17 - all of them when Bogut was playing.
With star Dirk Nowitzki, veteran JJ Barea and guard Seth Curry also on the injury list, Bogut - who averages 10 rebounds and four points from 25 minutes in 16 games this season - couldn't return quickly enough.
"I'll take a couple of days to rest it, ramp up the rehab and see how we go," Bogut said.
"It's one of those things that could be three games, five games, or seven games. I don't know.
"It's all how the bruising kind of responds and settles down, and then it's about being able to load my right knee until I can explode.
Until then it's pool and rehab ... hopefully they'll let me do some shooting in the next few days."
