Butler Likely Is Out Until Friday vs. Utah

Wizards forward Caron Butler suffered a strained left hip flexor during Sunday's overtime loss at Milwaukee, in which he scored a career-high 40 points in 51 minutes. The injury caused him to miss last night's game against Toronto at Verizon Center.

Butler, who missed a Dec. 22 loss at Indiana with a pair of sprained ankles, likely will miss tonight's game at Toronto, according to Coach Eddie Jordan, but could return for Friday's home game against Utah.

"He's out [last night] and probably [tonight] and then we'll evaluate him and see how he is on Friday at shoot-around," Jordan said before last night's game.

Antawn Jamison shifted from power forward to Butler's small forward spot last night and Andray Blatche was inserted into the lineup as a starter at power forward. He likely will start tonight, as well. The team already is without three-time all-star guard Gilbert Arenas (left knee) and center Etan Thomas and has played eight games this season without guard Antonio Daniels.

Arenas and Butler went down late last season and -- despite the efforts of Antawn Jamison, who averaged 32 points per game in the series -- the Wizards were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Cleveland.

"We've had practice," Jordan said. "We've been here before in the playoffs last year. Antawn carried us and Antonio was very good so we'll tweak some things to go towards Antawn a lot and then we have some other guys with experience. We hope Andray and Darius [Songaila] can step up and help carry the load Caron carried for us."

UP NEXT: Tonight at Toronto 7 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980

Friday vs. Utah 8 p.m. Comcast SportsNet, WTEM-980