By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 16, 2007

Wizards guard Antonio Daniels, who is expected to miss two to four weeks with a sprained right medial collateral ligament, is hoping to make his return closer to the two-week mark. Daniels suffered the knee injury during the second quarter of Thursday's win in Miami when he collided with Heat guard Dwyane Wade.

Daniels continued to play and finished with 11 points and five assists in the team's 104-91 victory. However, Daniels said, something with the knee didn't feel right as the game went on. By the time he woke up Friday morning, he knew that an MRI exam would not produce good news.

"I'm now in my 11th year and I can never remember having an injury that made me miss a significant amount of time, never," said Daniels, who averaged 11 points, 6.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds as a starter in place of injured guard Gilbert Arenas. "But I don't plan on missing a month with this one. I was telling [athletic trainer] Eric Waters that it already feels better today than it did yesterday."

Daniels did an excellent job of filling in for Arenas and the team was 9-5 with a starting lineup of Daniels, DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood. They thrived with excellent ball movement, sound defense and rebounding, and timely shot-making.

Rookie Nick Young started in place of Daniels last night, but Coach Eddie Jordan said he could start either Roger Mason Jr. or Butler at guard.

"We're just going to try to find that right combination of who's starting, who's coming off the bench and how we mesh," Jordan said.

UP NEXT Wednesday vs. Chicago7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980 Friday vs. Atlanta7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980 UP NEXT Wednesday vs. Chicago7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980 Friday vs. Atlanta7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980