Rashard Lewis out, Nick Young probable vs. Orlando

Rashard Lewis and Nick Young both sat out of Tuesday's practice at Amway Center, as both deal with respective knee injuries. Lewis is not expected to face the Orlando Magic in his return to the arena where his image still hangs on banners surrounding the adjacent blocks. He will miss his third consecutive game with right knee tendinitis and said he was disappointed about not playing his former team.

"I think I'm going to be sitting out again," said Lewis, who joined the Wizards in the trade for Gilbert Arenas on Dec. 18. "I'm going to rest the knee one more game and also with the all-star break, try to come back after the break. I think it would've been a lot of fun to play here and be back in the arena that I played in this year -- not last year, but this year -- so it most definitely would've been a lot of fun playing in front of the fans."

Coach Flip Saunders said he is hopeful that Lewis will be able to benefit from sitting otu nearly two weeks before the team practices again next Monday. He expects to have Young against the Magic after Young suffered a bruise in his left knee during the Wizards' 115-110 win on Sunday in Cleveland. Young rode a stationary bike but was otherwise a spectator during practice.

"I'm taking my time to see what I'm going to do," Young said. "I'm going to try, but you never know."

With or without Young, Saunders said he hopes the Wizards can build on their success against the Cavaliers.

"I think we're playing a little better. If we can build off the Cleveland game, with the confidence of just playing hard. After getting spanked by San Antonio, it kind of woke us up a little bit, from that standpoint. I would think because of a situation where we've had one close game against Orlando and they throttled us down here that I would hope that we'd have a good sense of urgency, going in and knowing that we've got five days rest after that. Not go into the all-star break tomorrow, but going in Thursday."

Saunders also credited the presence of Josh Howard as making a difference in the Wizards' first road win in 27 games.

"We really don't have a slasher, playmaker type, in the front court. He's got the ability. He made threes, attacked the basket. He's so smart defensively. Just another veteran player," Saunders said. "And what happened, our younger guys played with more confidence because of that. It's like last year, we made the trade, got him, and then he got hurt right away. We never had a chance to really utilize him. When we've got him at close to full strength, we've been a pretty good team. We've won games. I hope he'll be able to have a good one tomorrow, have five days rest and prepare a little bit, keep toned up and be prepared to have a good 28 games."