Eddie Jones doesn't like the way he's playing. So he's going to stop for a while.

The pain in his right ankle was too great Tuesday night, and he took a seat after five minutes. Coach Avery Johnson announced after the game that Jones will be on the shelf for as much as two weeks.

"He's not right," Johnson said. "And we're going to shut him down for about two weeks in hopes of him getting healthy at some point in December. We're taking a different approach. [We've] done this before with guys like Josh Howard, Devean George, Devin Harris."

In those cases last season, players were held out until injuries that they perhaps could have played through ran their course and were no longer an issue.

Jones said that's the prudent course of action.

"If I play, it's just going to linger and linger and linger," said the starting shooting guard. "And I'll be looking awful out there. I'm not able to do a lot of things. They brought me in here to be a part of this thing, and I want to do it the right way.

"So it's better to have this in November than January or February."

Jones also said he hopes to shave a few days off of Johnson's two-week timetable.

"I'll sit down for the first week, then see how it is," he said. "If it's pain-free, maybe I'll be back a little early."

No need for panic: The numbers, 6-for-22 from the field, look bad. But the author of those disturbing figures isn't that surprised at the early-season shooting slump. History shows the Mavericks shouldn't be alarmed, either.

"I struggled like this last year early," Trenton Hassell said Tuesday. "There's a comfort zone. I think [Johnson is] going to put me in positions where I feel more comfortable, so that's going to help.

"At the beginning of the year last year, I was terrible. Then around December and January, I got my stroke going."

That he did. Hassell was hovering around 40 percent for more than a month. Then, in December, he hit 57.6 percent from the field and went on to hit a respectable 49 percent for the season for Minnesota.

Early in the season, it's been difficult for Hassell to get on track. He hasn't put in much time on the floor, which is part of the problem. But he hasn't shot well enough to earn extended playing time.

"But it could be deceiving because I only shoot the ball once or twice a game," he said. "So if I don't hit any of them, the percentage looks bad."

George improving: Devean George, recovering from a stress reaction in his left foot, is expected to start scrimmaging next week, Johnson said. After that, it will be a matter of determining when he's ready for game action.

"I haven't seen this type of injury take as long as it's taken," Johnson said. "But everybody's body is different."

Johnson added that he's not worried about George's contributions once he returns from injury.

"When a guy's in the final year of his contract, when he gets back, he's going to play hard," Johnson said. "This is a big year for George. It's a contract year, and he's relatively young."