Irving is out for the year

The Boston Celtics will have to go through the playoffs without Kyrie Irving.

The star point guard will need surgery on his left knee and miss the rest of the regular season and postseason. The team on Thursday put his recovery time at four to five months.

Irving hasn’t played since March

11.

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.

Nowitzki has surgery: 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 7foot German will play as a 40-yearold 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.

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

Nowitzki averaged 12 points and 5.7 rebounds in 77 games, a record for a player’s 20th season.