Hornets' Paul may miss 1-2 months

NEW ORLEANS - Hornets' all-star point guard Chris Paul is out indefinitely with a left knee injury that will likely require surgery.

An MRI revealed more damage to the knee than the initial diagnosis of a bruise, Hornets coach Jeff Bower said Monday. The coach refused, however, to confirm reports that Paul had a meniscus tear and would miss at least a month.

"We're in fact-finding stages right now, gathering as much information as possible for decisions to be made to take the next steps," Bower said. "It is likely there will be a surgical solution for it. We don't have a timetable (for Paul's return) right now, nor do we know a surgical procedure right now."

Paul watched the Hornets' shootaround Monday but was unavailable to reporters.

He first hurt his knee in a game at Golden State on Wednesday. He struck the same spot against a camera when he went out of bounds near the end of regulation against the Bulls on Friday night.

He missed the Hornets' game at Memphis on Saturday.

Yahoo! Sports, citing unidentified sources close to Paul, reported that test results showed a partially torn meniscus and that he would miss 1-2 months.

Paul, who sat out eight games earlier this year with a sprained ankle, is averaging a team-high 20.4 points and an NBA-best 11.2 assists. He was the runner-up to the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant for league MVP in 2007-08 and finished fifth last season.

Rookie Darren Collison, averaging 6.8 points and 3.2 assists, will start in Paul's place.