NEW YORK (AP) - David Stern cut two more weeks off the NBA schedule, debated the finer points of the lockout with Michael Jordan, and then met with the players to see if the sides could compromise on the ''guts'' of a new deal.

''I feel neither optimism nor pessimism. I just think that we've got to talk,'' the NBA commissioner said. ''We may have the skeleton of a deal, But in terms of a hard negotiation on the guts of this deal, I would say we're no place yet.''

The cancellations, which wiped out the rest of the November schedule, came after a meeting of the league's Board of Governors at which some owners asked when the ''drop dead'' date would be for losing the entire regular season.

Stern said he did not want to set a deadline.

''One, we want to be ready to be imaginative,'' he said. ''Two, we don't want to make threats; we want to make a deal.''