"Al Harrington played a little one-on-one with Nuggets assistant coach Melvin Hunt after Sunday morning's practice.

Hunt made sure he stayed away from Harrington's dislocated thumb, which has sidelined the Nuggets forward for the last three games. Harrington made sure he got a good test of the thumb, which is close to being healed enough for him to return to action.

Officially, count Harrington as questionable for tonight's game against the surging Houston Rockets. He plans to go through a shootaround this morning before making a final decision on his playing status.

"I think the biggest thing is I'm going to be scared of sticking in there, trying to swipe at the ball," Harrington said. "It kind of hurts grabbing the ball rebounding, stuff like that. So I've just got to make a good decision, if I should just maybe wait two more days, give it two more days of healing, because we've obviously got a lot more games to go. So I shouldn't rush it."

Harrington is the final piece to a Nuggets puzzle that has taken more than two months to put together. Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen have already returned. Carmelo Anthony returned Saturday night. In that game, for the first time, the Nuggets put the starting five on the court they had envisioned before the season began."