Butler’s Return To Court Possible vs. Cleveland

Today is Washington Wizards forward Caron Butler’s birthday; probably the best present for him - and especially the team - is if he can make his long awaited return to action as the Cavaliers come to Washington for a visit Thursday night. According to coach Eddie Jordan as he told Mike Jones of the Washington Times, “Caron looked good today, he did everything everyone else did and we’ll see how he reacts. Caron’s going to be a probability that he’s playing, so we’ll add a little ‘Tough Juice’ to the lineup.”

Butler has missed 16 straight games and 19 total since January 27 with a small labral tear in his left hip; he had his second full-speed practice yesterday. The good news for Butler and the Wizards is that after 3 days of activities, he has experienced no pain in the hip. And to show what kind of guy that he is, he went so far as to say that his playing style won’t change one bit - which makes sense as if you’re tentative with your playing style, then your performance suffers, and the chance of getting hurt again increases. In other words, play as if you were never hurt in the first place.