Josh Howard on return: "It's about to be that time"

Josh Howard is moving closer to making his long-awaited season debut after spending the past few months rehabilitating from left knee surgery. Howard has been cautious about his return -- and had a slight setback a few weeks ago -- but he said on Tuesday that he would likely be back on the court at a home game in the next two weeks.

"It's about to be that time," Howard said at the Wizards shootaround at the UCLA student activity center. "It's probably going to be one of those home games coming up."

Howard still wouldn't offer a specific timetable. When asked if he would be back for either the Lakers on Dec. 14 or Miami on Dec. 18, Howard said, "I can honestly say I don't know, but I hope that next week [is when it happens]. Charlotte [Dec. 20] or Chicago [Dec. 22] might be better for me."

Coach Flip Saunders joked recently that Howard looks like he could play now, given how he has been participating in five-on-five drills, without any limitations, in practice the past few weeks. After practice on Monday, Howard played in some two-on-two full court drills with Hilton Armstrong, Hamady Ndiaye and Kevin Seraphin. He moved effortlessly up and down the court and had no problems cutting or sprinting up and down. Afterward, Howard, "I can run now."

"I think Josh is getting closer and closer," Saunders said. "The thing we have to look at with Josh, since we don't have a lot of practice time, do we want to activate him at some point and know that the games are going to be his practice. He might play only 10 or 12 minutes, but gradually use that as his rehabilitation."

Could it be next week? "Could be," Saunders said. "I don't know. I think we'll evaluate after we get a couple of good workouts in. we'll evaluate when he gets back."

(...)

After being away from basketball for nearly eight months, Howard said, "I'm going to be excited. It's a good feeling to know that I'm actually going to be able to come back and play, be almost 100 percent healthy. Just go out there and have fun. It's been a long time coming."