Reggie Miller broke his hand during Friday night's pre-season loss to the Nuggets. He is expected to be out 4-6 weeks.

The Pacers are already short handed with Jermaine O'Neal expected to miss significant time at the start of the season.

Indiana Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal likely will open the regular season on the injured list after an examination Thursday revealed a strained ligament in his left foot has not healed sufficiently.

Coach Rick Carlisle said there's about a 75 percent chance O'Neal will not be available when the Pacers begin their season at Cleveland on Wednesday. Carlisle also said it looks like it might be a "couple of weeks" before O'Neal plays.

"It's not 100 percent, but it's really looking like this is the way it's going to go," Carlisle said.

O'Neal, an All-Star the past three seasons and the third-place finisher in the NBA's Most Valuable Player voting last season, was injured during a private workout in Los Angeles early in August. He played in the second and third preseason games.

The Pacers close preseason play tonight against Denver at Conseco Fieldhouse.

O'Neal's teammates have been speaking optimistically of his availability for the season opener. But physical therapist Dan Dyrek evaluated him after a solo workout Thursday and determined he might not be ready.

"They just feel right now he's probably a couple of weeks away from playing," Carlisle said.

O'Neal's absence would be a major blow to a team already hampered by injuries.  Jeff Foster is beginning the season on the injured list.

The Indiana Pacers announced Friday that Jamaal Tinsley has signed a six year contract extension with the team.  While no financial details have yet been reported according to Tinsley "it's enough."

Coming off his rookie contract Tinsley and the Pacers had until Sunday to sign an extension, otherwise the starting point guard would have become a restricted free agent at the season's end.

"I wanted to get it out of the way so I don't have to worry about it," Tinsley said.

Standing 6-3 and weighing 183 pounds, Tinsley averaged 8.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game last season. In three seasons in the NBA (all with Indiana), he has posted career averages of 8.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 7.3 apg in 205 contests.

"We are very happy to have Jamaal Tinsley signed to a contract that carries him into the future with the Pacers," said Pacers CEO and president Donnie Walsh. "He is a very important part of our team."

Tinsley was originally selected by the then Vancouver Grizzlies with the 27th overall pick in the 2001 draft. His draft rights were traded to Atlanta and then to the Pacers.

In a survey conducted by NBA.com, the GM's of the league have elected Ron Artest as best defender.

He was also voted the toughest player in the league.

Ben Wallace of the defending champion Detroit Pistons was the runner-up in both polls.

Jon Wertheim of SI.com suggests that the Indiana Pacers are under a curse similar to the one that the Red Sox have just come out from under.

It is called "The Curse of Tom Owens."

The Pacers' coach at the time, Jack McKinney, had just led the team to the NBA playoffs for the first time.

But he had just lost center James Edwards to free agency, so he traded a first-round draft pick in 1984 to Portland for Owens, a journeyman.

Owens played just one season for the Pacers, averaging 10.5 points. That draft pick, meanwhile, turned out to be the second overall selection in 1984. The Blazers used it to take Sam Bowie, but could have taken Michael Jordan, who went third to Chicago.

The history of the Pacers, and the NBA, would have been rewritten if they had kept the pick and drafted Jordan. Instead, they are still searching for their first NBA title.

Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh, who took over the basketball operations in 1986, said he doesn't feel cursed. But he agrees he might feel differently had he made the trade.

"Then I don't know what I'd be doing," he said.

The Pacers have reached the playoffs in 13 of the past 15 seasons, and reached the Finals in 2000.

Hopes are high for the Pacers this season with the addition of Stephen Jackson to a talented core of Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest, as they attempt to break the curse of squandering Michael Jordan.

Indiana Pacers center Jeff Foster will have arthroscopic surgery to repair a cartilage tear in his right hip Wednesday morning and will miss the start of the regular season.

Scot Pollard will start while Foster recovers, which is expected to take four to six weeks.

"The opinion was I could play through it, but by December or January I'd be pretty bad," Foster said this morning. "The consensus was to get it fixed and by mid-December hopefully I'll be 100 percent."

The surgery will repair Foster's labrum, a joint socket. He isn't sure when the injury occurred, but believes it was in a summer pick-up game at the San Antonio Spurs training facility when a player fell on him and he felt something pop.

He played in the first two preseason games, averaging 10.5 points on 73 percent shooting in 15.5 minutes. He sat out the three games previous to tonight's game with Memphis at Conseco Fieldhouse, however, and was held out of practice as well.

"I was really, really tight in my hip," Foster said. "We couldn't get it worked out, and when they finally worked it out it brought the problem to life."

TNT analyst Charles Barkley likes the Sacramento Kings chances in the reshaped Western Conference if they can trade Peja Stojakovic for Ron Artest.

"Ain't no moves under the radar, buddy. I'll tell you what: If Sacramento will trade Peja Stojakovic for Ron Artest, they could win the West. They need that defensive element. They need that. They don't need the offense. I would do that trade yesterday. That's a great trade for Sacramento. I don't know what they're holding up."

Jermaine O'Neal struggled through 21 minutes Tuesday night before succumbing to lower back pain, which he said was caused by recurring pain in his sprained left foot.

O'Neal left four minutes into the third quarter after a 1-of-9 shooting performance. He finished with two points and five rebounds.

"I just have to take some more time off to get this foot healed because it's not going the way we wanted it to go," O'Neal said.

Instead of competing in the Athens Olympics as Ron Artest believed he should, he signed the group Allure to his music label Tru Warier Entertainment.  

The acts of his label are very diverse as he also has signed a 78 year-old woman named Doris who plays a style of country-blues.

Artest also signed an endorsement contract with the shoe company L.A. Gear.  He considered signing with a major shoe company, but decided on L.A. Gear because they will give him more freedom than he would have found with some of the bigger shoes.

Randy Holcomb was an excellent player for San Diego State in the underrated Mountain West Conference.  He helped lead SDSU to the NCAA tournament in 2002, where they were elminated in the first round by the Frank Williams led University of Illinois.

Holcomb is playing for the Indiana Pacers this fall, where he hopes to make their roster.

In a preseason contest versus the Washington Wizards, Holcomb tipped in the winning basket as time expired.

"It just felt good to be at the right place at the right time," Holcomb said.