Wizards Report

Seen and heard last night at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.:

STACKHOUSE MAKING PROGRESS — Wizards forward Jerry Stackhouse still has no timetable for his return from preseason knee surgery, but a checkup with his New York doctor seemed to indicate he is getting closer.

“I have some good news from the standpoint of the injury is healing well,” Stackhouse said. “There are no setbacks as far as structurally to my knee.”

Stackhouse, however, is concerned that the muscles in the area of his quadriceps have atrophied to the point where they now lag behind his knee.

“My muscles need to get stronger,” Stackhouse said. “The discomfort now is from my muscles not being as strong as they should be. That is my focus now, to try and get back and strengthen my quads and stuff.

“I may step away for a minute, get with a strength trainer to get my leg back and get back stronger than ever.”

Stackhouse, the Wizards’ leading scorer last year at 21.5 points a game, is still not ready to put a timetable on his return, which seems to rule out a return this month.

“If I’m not confident in it to go out there, I don’t want to wind up hurting it. I’ve just got to get it stronger. There’s no timetable.

LENNY WILL BE FINE — Lenny Wilkens, hired yesterday to replace Don Chaney as coach of the New York Knicks, was catching flak in the New York area because of his age (67).

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said it won’t be a problem.

“How can you lose your touch?” Jordan said. “The guy has forgotten more than most people know. He hasn’t lost his touch.”

Wilkens joined the Wizards at training camp last fall and helped Jordan and his coaching staff.

“Our guys liked him tremendously,” said Jordan, who asked Wilkens to join him at training camp. “He’s going to do a hell of a job.”

— John N. Mitchell