The Hornets hope to learn today how long they will be playing without injured star forward Jamal Mashburn.
Mashburn, who has missed Charlotte's past four games with a lower abdominal strain, is expected to be out for an extended period. Just how long that will be depends upon which course of treatment he and his doctors settle upon.
Surgery, one of the options, would give him the best chance of playing without recurring problems but would require a recovery time of at least two months, sources said.
Mashburn has been consulting with team physician Glenn Perry and others. He saw a specialist in Raleigh last week and another in Charlotte Monday.
"With the physicians' help and advice he'll have to make a decision," coach Paul Silas said. "I guess he's just seeing other doctors to formulate in his mind what he wants to do."
Silas said the strain occurred sometime late last season.
"He felt something but nobody could figure out what it was," Silas said. "He rested it all summer. Nobody knew (what it was). That was the problem."
The abdominal strain, similar to one Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal incurred in a previous season, is apparently difficult to diagnose. Mashburn was first thought to have a strained right groin.
The Hornets are not expected to add anyone else to the roster should Mashburn be out for a long time.
"We'll just have to go with what we have," Silas said. "I've looked (at the free agent list) and there's really nobody out there who makes any sense right now. I look too at the new guys we have. They've been here two months now and they're just now starting to get familiar with everything. So someone else starting new would be tough."
Forward George Lynch, a North Carolina alumnus acquired from Philadelphia last month in a trade that involved Derrick Coleman, is recovering from foot surgery. He is expected to play again in late December or early January.