Metta

World Peace

Artest should come up huge in the absence of Jermaine O’Neal.

Artest is said to love practicing with reserves and leading a group of lesser-knowns on the floor. “I like to win with the 13th man,” he said. “I like to win with underdogs, when people think you don’t have a chance. I like to get things the hard way.” Artest was already a must-start, but could do a little more scoring than usual in the first month.

After four days of chaos concerning where his priorities are, Artest is set to return to action tonight. Expect a huge game from him as he tries to give the national media something else to talk about besides his unbelievable request for time off to recover from his grueling music career and schedule.

Artest was charged with the less severe Flagrant 1 penalty with 29.4 seconds left in regulation of the Pacers’ overtime loss at Philadelphia. Artest was defending Josh Davis, whose momentum on a layup attempt caused him to fall to the court. “In looking at it again; I’m not even sure he fouled the guy,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

Teams are responsible for salaries for only 10 games whenever a player receives a lengthy suspension. That’s a silver lining, maybe, although the playoff revenue likely to have been generated by having all their stars together surely would have covered that.

''We don’t have a trade like that,’' Walsh said. ''I haven’t talked to them about it.’' Team president Larry Bird echoed Walsh’s statements that such a deal hasn’t been discussed.

He’s still suspended for the season, but the fact that he’s been allowed to practice with the team is leading to a lot of speculation that the league will let him back in for good behavior at some point.

Artest averaged 22.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists to lead the Pacers to a 4-0 record last week. He’s taken a leadership role on the team and improved his behavior. His value is very high right now.

Artest was benched for the second half of Saturday’s game for taking poor shots. Carlisle wants to talk to his forward before tonight’s game: “My feeling is he’ll be back in the starting lineup, but I do have to talk to him about it and talk to the team about it.”

Unless the league office rescinds the call, Artest will miss Friday and Monday against Utah and Portland respectively.