Jermaine O'Neal has accepted the fact that he may have to sit out the entire season to heal his ailing knee, but the Indiana Pacers don't expect that to be the case.

"I'm proceeding with the assumption of what our medical people tell me," Coach Jim O'Brien told the Indianapolis Star before Indiana's game in Philadelphia on Monday. "They feel it's a bone bruise that can be cleaned up, and he'll be ready to go."

If that is the case, O'Neal will miss at least two weeks but not much longer than that. The Pacers currently hold the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference with the Nets and Bulls breathing down their necks.