Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee yesterday and will miss one or two weeks.

Roy has already been ruled out of Portland's first-round series against the Phoenix Suns, which starts tomorrow. But with the recovery timeline, the Blazers left open the possibility of his return should Portland advance.

The three-time All-Star leads the Blazers with 21.5 points per game. He injured his knee last weekend in the first half of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Spanish swingman Rudy Fernandez will start tomorrow in Roy's place.

Earlier this week, Roy said he would try to play with the injury, a meniscus tear, because doctors told him he could not hurt it further. The surgery was announced Thursday.

JAZZ

KIRILENKO OUT FOR FIRST-ROUND SERIES

AK-47 is out, K-Mart is in.

Forward Andrei Kirilenko will miss Utah's first-round playoff series against Denver after aggravating his strained left calf during a workout Thursday, making it harder for the Jazz to guard Nuggets All-Star Carmelo Anthony.

Kirilenko, who has missed 15 of his team's last 17 games, was injured during a light workout in Salt Lake City. An MRI revealed a muscle strain in a different area from his previous two strains, so team doctors recommended two weeks of rest while they look into other treatment options.

"I can't react. What am I going to do? Go jump and hit my head against the wall? I'm not going to do that," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "He got hurt. I felt bad for him, and he wasn't very happy about it. He was devastated."

Sloan said he plans to have Carlos Boozer back in the lineup for Game 1 tonight at the Pepsi Center.

A strained muscle in his right side kept him out of the season finale Wednesday night, when the Jazz lost to the Phoenix Suns at home.

SALARY CAP

PROJECTED TOTAL COULD BE $56.1M

NBA teams could find more money to spend during shopping season.

Commissioner David Stern said yesterday that the league is projecting the salary cap to be higher than it expected, good news for teams looking to sign top stars during this summer's expected free agency bonanza.

The league is projecting the cap to come in at about $56.1 million, though the actual number won't be determined until early July, before teams can begin officially signing players.

While that figure would still be lower than this season's $57.7 million cap and only the third time it's ever fallen, it's far better than estimates from last summer, when the league sent a memo to teams warning them of a potential sharp drop to between $50.4 million to $53.6 million.

"It's pretty clear that the revenue projections that we have now, although, you know, they are not as good as last year, and our revenue will still be down somewhat, it will not be as down as much as we had feared at the beginning of the season," Stern said.