With 15 games left in the season have the Washington Wizards chances of making a post-season appearance all but disappeared?  They are currently 2.5 games behind Charlotte for the eighth place in the East, have a hot Miami Heat outfit just head of them in ninth place and then have an unpredictable Toronto Raptors outfit who could explode into a winning streak at any time one game behind.  Looks bleak right?  Maybe not, because according to Steve Wyche of the Washington Post Michael Jordan could be close to returning to the Wizards.

His knee is healing, he has upgraded his timetable, and he said his knee feels 100% better.  All are positive signs for the Washington Wizards, who have only one four games in Jordan's absence including last night's win in Golden State, but with so little time remaining when will he be back?

According to coach Doug Collins Jordan could join the team for Wednesday's game against the Denver Nuggets or Thursday's against the Utah Jazz, both on the road.  He almost certainly would not be suiting up in these, but Sunday in Toronto seems like it would be the earliest that Jordan would actually be in uniform.

"He could show up at any time," Collins said. "It depends on how he's feeling. He might jump on a plane and say, 'Let's go.' He said he was doing some defensive slides, some shooting and he said he was going to pick up the pace to see how he was going to handle it. He said his right knee feels 100 percent better than it did before the surgery."

Jordan , who is currently in Chicago with family and has not given the Wizards a definite timetable of when he expects to join the team, wants to participate in a few practices with the team to see how his knee responds before taking the court.

"He wouldn't play without practicing," Collins said. "I would expect him to try and get two or three practices with us."

But for the Wizards time is money, and it is quickly falling down the drain.  With the majority of their run home against strong playoff teams there is no doubt that their path - especially without Jordan - from this point is much harder than that of the Hornets, Heat, and Raptors.  This means that the Wizards, who have taken on a new up tempo offensive style with Jordan out, would have little to no time to re-adjust to life with MJ.

"The guys feel confident, but I think they would feel much better with him," Collins said. "They know what he provides for this team."