Paul

Dr. James Andrews will perform the surgery on Thursday in Pensacola, Fla., to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. A timetable for Paul’s return will be determined after the surgery, the team said.”We are anticipating a very successful process,” Hornets coach and GM Jeff Bower said
Wednesday. “We look forward to his return to action at some point later on. The time frame will be determined after the surgery. I won’t speculate on that.”Paul will miss the NBA All-Star Game and All-Star Weekend, Feb. 12-14 in Dallas. Denver Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups has been named a Western Conference reserve All-Star to replace Paul on the West roster.”Obviously you never want to be in this position to replace a guard like Chris Paul in the middle of the season,” Bower said. “We want to continue to take advantage of the talent and skills that Darren [Collison] and Marcus [Thornton] have shown over the course of this season.”"We’re encouraged with the play of our current group and will continue to monitor that,” Bower added. “We feel confident in their capabilities.”Sources close to the situation confirmed to ESPN.com on Sunday that Paul tore cartilage in his left knee and would be forced to undergo surgery.Yahoo! Sports, citing unidentified sources close to Paul, reported that test results showed a partially torn meniscus and that he would miss one to two months.Paul first hurt his left 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 Chicago Bulls on Friday night.He missed the Hornets’ game at Memphis on Saturday.Paul averages 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.ESPN.com NBA writer Marc Stein and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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