Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson all missed practice today. Arenas, who two days ago was cleared to resume light non-contact work with the team after having knee surgery in November, was on the court for five minutes, Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said, "but that was it."

Arenas joined the team Monday in their first practice after the All-Star break but didn't take part in any five-on-five drills. Jordan said Arenas had some soreness and that that is to be expected and that hopefully next practice he can do a bit more. When asked how realistic the "loose" return date of March 2 was, Jordan said "I don't know about the March 2 date. I'm thinking about today, tomorrow and Friday."

Butler missed another practice with that strained left hip flexor. He has missed the last six games and nine of the last 11, went through a full practice Monday and did some work in yesterday morning's shootaround but did not play in last night's game. He said after last night's loss to New York that he's still suffering from some soreness in the hip.

Stevenson, who has been slowed by a sore knee, wore flip-flops today but said missing practice was just a precaution because he wants to be able to go hard in tomorrow's practice, which precedes Friday's game in Cleveland.

Also resting was Etan Thomas, who took part in Monday's practice -- his first this season after undergoing surgery to repair a leak in his aortic valve in October -- but had to scale back today after experiencing soreness in his chest after taking some contact. Thomas, who did some light shooting and a few walk-thru type drills today, said last night that his heart is fine, but his sternum is still sore and that he'll just have to take it slow.

- Mike Jones