FROM THE BASELINE TOTAL STUD The Candy Man can and proved it Monday. Michael Olowokandi scored 20 first-half points, 14 in the first quarter, to help the Clippers end a two-game losing streak. Olowokandi MIN FG REB BLK PTS 39 12-18 11 3 26 WHAT A DUD Larry Hughes, demoted as Golden State's point guard, missed his 20th straight 3-pointer in Monday's loss to Washington. He has made just two of his last 40 attempts from three. Hughes MIN FG 3PT AST PTS 8 1-2 0-1 1 2 INFIRMARY REPORT Sonics forward Vin Baker was expected to return to action Tuesday after missing 17 games with three dislocated toes on his left foot. "I'm not going to step on any toes," Baker said. No pun intended. NUMBER OF THE DAY The Nuggets' number of missed 3-pointers in two games since their 255-game streak of at least one three ended. 11 QUOTE BOARD "It's a conspiracy. Michael Jordan has too much power. He must have called the refs. ... I got mugged." —Warriors guard Gilbert Arenas on getting whistled for a last-second offensive foul in Washington's win on Monday Arenas OTHER STUFF WE GOT Playoffs: Matchup breakdowns Dr. Jack: Prescription for the Wolves So the Wizards came back in Jordanesque fashion to beat the Warriors on Monday night. So Michael Jordan is returning to action -- almost a month after having arthroscopic surgery on an aching right knee -- in time for one final, 15-game push to complete The Miracle in D.C. So what. Jordan's return won't matter if the Wizards can't salvage victories in Denver and Utah this week and stay on the heels of the Hornets, the team they're chasing for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot. Right now, the Wiz sit 2½ games behind Charlotte, but the hurdles they need to clear aren't just in the standings. First, Jordan has to get himself into enough game shape to have an impact, and he has to do so in a matter of days with a handful of practices. Remember, he was averaging 36.7 minutes a game before his knee needed to be scoped, and during the five-game win streak just before the break that served as the topic of conversation at All-Star weekend, Jordan was adding plenty of mileage to his 39-year-old legs, playing less than 40 minutes only once. Then you've got to worry about the knee itself. Can it hold up to heavy pounding so soon? So let's say the first miracle is answered and Jordan can play a ton of minutes. Look who the Wizards face in D.C. after wrapping up their current seven-game roadie: Nuggets, Bucks, MAVERICKS and LAKERS. Then they travel to Milwaukee (2-0 against Washington) and Charlotte (2-1 against Washington). After a home game against Memphis, the Wizards close out the season at New Jersey, with a home-and-home against Philadelphia and with home games against Indiana and New York. Only three of their final 13 opponents are non-playoff teams. Then there's Charlotte's schedule. Six of the the Hornets' last 10 games are on the road, but they're a respectable 18-15 away from the empty confines of Charlotte Coliseum this season. Just one of those games (April 14 at Milwaukee) is against a current playoff team. Then there's the Hornets' bill of health. It's finally clean with Jamal Mashburn, Baron Davis and David Wesley back to help Charlotte reach .500 again with three consecutive wins over Utah, Phoenix and Milwaukee. Then there's the business of leapfrogging the Heat and ... get the picture? Collins believes the Wizards need 41 victories to make the playoffs for the first time since 1997. That means, at 31-36, they'll need to win 10 of their final 15 games. That's why Collins declared the games against Golden State and Denver -- two of the NBA's worst teams -- as must-wins. At least the Wizards are showing signs they've learned a thing or two from MJ. In Monday night's 99-96 win over the Warriors, Jordan was present in the minds of the Wizards, who took turns playing the hero. Chris Whitney drilled the big shot like Jordan with the go-ahead 3-pointer, and Popeye Jones made the heads-up defensive play like Jordan, sliding into the lane (despite behind held by Erick Dampier) to draw a charge on Gilbert Arenas with 6.7 seconds to play. But The Miracle in D.C. won't have a chance of happening unless Jordan can make cuts and jump with his surgically repaired knee. Yet even if he's pain-free, will Jordan have enough time to turn a 19-63 loser in 2001 into a playoff team in 2002? The Wizards hope so. Around the league Brown The Hornets are on the move all right. After Monday's 113-110 win over Milwaukee, they were just one game behind seventh-place Indiana, 2½ games behind sixth-place Philadelphia and three games behind fifth-place Orlando. Charlotte plays Indiana at home on Wednesday. "We still have a long way to go," P.J. Brown said. "I like what we're doing right now. The defense is setting the tone for us and that's winning games for us right now. If we keep that mentality, the sky's the limit. We can win a lot more. But you've got to buy into it. Everybody's got to buy into it. So far, so good." Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe has at least one fan of his trade-deadline deal with Dallas -- commissioner David Stern. "Denver was trying to, I would say, build for the future, give it self some room under the cap because it isn't going any place this year, and really say to its fans that the only players that we want here are players who want to be here," said Stern, who began a five-city tour of the league Monday in Denver. "I think that's a fair enough approach to take. So I think it was a very good trade, but particularly from Denver's perspective. I think that Kiki Vandeweghe has a vision and he's not afraid to take some risks in pursuing it." Joe Lago is the NBA editor for ESPN.com.