Celtics’ Irving out for season

The Boston Celtics have spent most of the season adjusting on the f ly. Now they will have to go through the playoffs without Kyrie Ir ving.

The star point guard will need surgery on his left knee and is done for the season. The team Thursday put his recovery time at four to five months.

Irving hasn’t played since March 11 and says he won’t dwell on what might have been.

“The hardest thing to do sometimes is accept the uncontrollable things life throws at you,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “It’s simply a test of your perseverance and will, to be present, even in the wake of what’s going on.”

In the upcoming surgery, two screws will be removed. They were implanted after Irving’s patellar fracture during the 2015 NBA Finals. Irving recently developed an infection at the site of the screws, and now they must be taken out.

Following his original procedure last month, the team had said the knee was structurally sound and the kneecap healed, but the wire had been putting pressure on the knee.

Dirk Nowitzki’s 20th season is over a few games early after the Dallas Mavericks star had surgery on his left ankle.

Now the question is whether the 7-foot German will play as a 40-year-old after saying he intends to return for a 21st season, all with the Mavericks. Nowitzki could be the first to play that long with one franchise.

The team said that Nowitzki underwent a procedure to clear out unhealthy tissue, called surgical debridement. It was performed at a Dallas medical clinic.

Nowitzki, who turns 40 in June, played his final game of the season at home against Portland on Tuesday.

The New Orleans Pelicans have brought back guard Jordan Crawford as the club tries to hang on to one of the final playoffs spots in the Western Conference. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.