The story comes from A. Sherrod Blakely of Comcast SportsNet:
Jermaine O'Neal said he plans to play against the Mavericks, but his bothersome left knee may keep him out of the lineup. He told CSNNE.com following Boston's 92-83 win over Oklahoma City that he recently had a "minor procedure" performed on the knee.
"It's just one of those situations, you're going to be banged up," O'Neal said.
Even after the procedure, O'Neal said the knee is still in a lot of pain.
As Blakely goes on to note in the article, this could account for O'Neal's lack of explosiveness, and for why his offense has been so perimeter-based thus far this season. O'Neal stressed that he just wants to make it through Monday's game against Dallas, seeing as the Celtics will have two days off before another heavyweight bout with the Miami Heat on Thursday, and the rest should help his ailing knee. The injury clearly doesn't bode well for the Celtics, who are currently without center candidates Shaquille O'Neal (right knee bruise) and Kendrick Perkins (torn ACL - out until January or February). Fortunately, Shaq could return sometime this week. As for Jermaine, it wouldn't be shocking to see him miss a few games because of this injury, but it'll probably come down to how well he can manage the pain that's obviously there.