"Al Thornton sat out the end of practice after dislocating his right middle finger while trying to go for a steal. Thornton popped his finger back into place and returned to the court shortly after practice with his finger encased in black tape. "It should be fine," Thornton said.

Nick Young, with his Afro now in twists, limped off the court, aided by head athletic trainer Eric Waters, after injuring his left knee at the conclusion of practice. And Yi Jianlian didn't participate in practice and said he was day-to-day after spraining his left ankle in the fourth quarter of the Wizards' 99-92 loss on Saturday to the Atlanta Hawks. "It's sore, swollen, real sore," Yi said, before walking out of the locker room with a noticeable limp.

"Got to have something going," Coach Flip Saunders said, adding that he wasn't sure how soon the players would recover from their respective injuries. "We'll have to wait and see."

But while the Wizards appear to be losing players right along with losing games, Josh Howard is hoping to come back by this weekend. Howard hasn't played since developing discomfort in his surgically-repaired left knee on Jan. 5 in Philadelphia, but he practiced in full for the first time in several weeks.

He ruled himself out of Wednesday's game against Milwaukee, but said, "I'm getting close. I'm feeling good. A whole lot better than the first time I came back. I just got to continue with the rehabbing and court work."

Howard has started to feel some improvement in his left since having a platelet rich plasma injection in his left knee nearly two weeks ago. "I had it in my ankle before and it helped out tremendously and right now, I'm seeing the results. So it's something I wanted to do and I'm glad I got it done.""