The Portland Trailblazers have played well in spite of the absence of shooting guard Brandon Roy but they definitely can\’t wait to get him back in the lineup. Roy had arthroscopic surgery on both knees last Monday, but the three time All Star is expecting to return to action this season. Neither the team nor his doctors have put any sort of calendar on his return, however, and Roy says that he\’ll follow the opinion of his medical professionals and not rush things. Portland has won five straight and seven of the last 10 games.

Roy talked to the media before the Blazers\’ come from behind win over the Indiana Pacers at the Rose Garden Arena on Saturday night. He was walking without crutches and received a huge ovation from the hometown fans when he was shown on the scoreboard video screen. He said he\’d already done a little shooting on Friday, and it\’s hard watching his teammates from the sideline:

\”Now is challenging because I want to create pushing the minute it feels good enough and the doctor is still saying \’Nah, we have to take it a little bit easier.\’ So it\’s tough.\”

Roy had been bothered with nagging knee pain all year, and after missing a number of games due to rest the Blazers announced that he\’d be sidelined \’indefinitely\’. The team hasn\’t made any public statement about a change to that status despite Roy\’s surgery which he says has already made his knees feel better:

\”There\’s a slight difference with some things that were going on that feel better right after the surgery. It\’s just a situation where he was able to go in there and kind of debris both the knees and clean up a little bit of some problems that I was feeling in the right knee. We\’re optimistic that that worked.\”

The Blazers have been hit brutal by injuries this season-most recently; they lost forward Marcus Camby who had arthroscopic knee surgery late last week. He\’s expected to be out for at least three weeks. Portland was already without former #1 draft option Greg Oden, who has had knee surgery and will miss the complete season.

Despite the injuries, the team has maintained the play hard thanks to the plus from veteran guard Andre Miller and a number of younger players including Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum. The Blazers will try to extend their winning streak to six games on Monday night as they host the Sacramento Kings. The game is at this time off the board for NBA betting due to numerous injuries on both teams.