Gilbert Arenas missed practice for the third straight day on Tuesday as he deals with a sore right ankle.

Washington coach Flip Saunders said he'll "have to see what happens in the next 48 hours" before the team determines if Arenas will play in Thursday's opener against San Antonio.

"We need him, there's no question," Saunders said.

"You take a guy that last year, before he went out, he was a 22-point scorer and 7? assists, so you'd like to put that in your lineup. What it does is it puts more pressure on your main guards, John and Kirk, those guys maybe have to play more minutes than maybe what you'd like them to until you get him back, whenever that is."