"Less than one day after the Washington Wizards celebrated a third win to cap what Coach Flip Saunders called their best four-game stretch of the season, the team received the sobering news that starting guard Josh Howard would be out the rest of the way with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Howard was hurt with 4 minutes 23 seconds left to play in the first quarter of Monday's 101-95 victory over visiting Chicago. To that point, Howard had scored a team-high seven points and appeared headed for another quality performance since joining the Wizards from Dallas in a multi-player trade over the all-star break.

The announcement is the latest setback for a franchise that this season has weathered its share of injury misfortune as well as mishaps off the court, most infamously the suspension of Gilbert Arenas after he brought firearms to the Verizon Center locker room.

"You know what, I'm numb to everything at this point," Saunders said after the Wizards' morning practice, "and I think our guys are that way. What we're going to do is we're going to put five guys on the floor, and those five guys are going to go out there and compete and play hard, and if we do that, we're going to give ourselves chances." "