At least his mind is at ease now. Aaron McKie learned little about the status of his injured left ankle from Houston specialist Donald Baxter on Monday, other than injuries like these take time to heal.
So McKie will wait.

Last night, when the 76ers played at Miami, McKie missed his 21st game since spraining the ankle Jan. 25 against Boston. He likely will sit tonight when the Sixers return the favor and host the Heat. Maybe by tomorrow, McKie will be able to practice.

He refused to speculate on when he might return to the lineup, instead saying he would take it one day at a time.

McKie's visit to Baxter's office was still useful. He learned that in addition to the high ankle sprain, he has stretched ligaments in front of and behind the ankle, and inflammation between two bones. Baxter numbed McKie's ankle with a shot, which allowed him to work out during the Sixers' shootaround yesterday morning, and then before the game.

"We're going to see how he does," said coach Larry Brown, who added that, in retrospect, had he known McKie would miss so much time, he would have put the guard on the injured list. "He did a lot today in shootaround, and he's working tonight. He stayed after shootaround and he's going to do the same thing tomorrow. We'll see if he can practice a little bit Thursday. We'll just go day-to-day.

"They said it's getting better."