"Shortly before the Wizards' tipped off against the Knicks, Josh Howard emerged from the tunnel in Madison Square Garden wearing a powder blue sport coat and moving along without the assistance of crutches. A knee brace was still noticeable underneath his jeans, but Howard was able to sit down with his teammates on the bench for the first time since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Feb. 22.

I caught up with Howard briefly after the game. Howard was in New York to meet with his doctors to see how he has progressed in the past month. Dr. David Altcheck performed the surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgeries in New York on March 16.

"I had to have a check up," Howard said, with an oversized all-white Washington Nationals cap on his head. "I wanted to see how I was doing. They was happy with the way things looked. They said I was ahead of schedule for the way I was looking."

He said he was pleased that he no longer has to walk around with crutches. "I have to keep the brace on for another week and a half, two weeks and just continue like that with the rehab," he said. "