MINNEAPOLIS – The one thing coach Rick Carlisle wanted to avoid with Josh Howard was having him bouncing in and out of the lineup.

But that's exactly what has happened. After starting three games, Howard was put back on the inactive list and will be out indefinitely to give his surgically repaired left ankle more time to heal.

"This decision is about my health," Howard said. "I want to be 100 percent. There's no in-between with me. I tried in-between, and it wasn't best for me or my team. I just want to get healthy and help this team win."

Owner Mark Cuban said the timetable for Howard's return is uncertain. "Anybody who puts out a date is guessing," Cuban said. "It could be a week or a month."

Howard did not re-injure the ankle in the second of back-to-back games Wednesday at San Antonio, Carlisle said Friday. But it became clear to the Mavericks that the 6-7 swingman was experiencing too much soreness to be effective.

"We're going to err on the side of caution and be even more aggressive with his work on rehab," Carlisle said. "We just got to get it right, so we're going to shut him down. There's no definite time period."

Howard missed the preseason and first five regular-season games. He played in the last three games, but when he began favoring the ankle Wednesday at San Antonio, he was pulled from the game.

"He's going to continue to work with the team and do a lot of extra work," Carlisle said. "We're going to work to get this thing where it needs to be. He did well [coming back] on a lot of levels. But he just needs more time."