WASHINGTON -- The doubts about the knees are gone. Michael Jordan has made his inevitable return to the starting lineup, and he's there to stay.

	Jordan

The experiment that had Jordan coming off the bench for the Washington Wizards went on the shelf for good Saturday night against Philadelphia. Jordan will start again Tuesday against Milwaukee and plans to do so as long as his body holds up.

''Early on in this season, I still had doubts,'' Jordan said Monday. ''Am I feeling OK today? Will I feel better tomorrow? Should I go left, go right? Can I land on this knee? That is over and done.''

Jordan as a sixth man wasn't really a success, anyway. Jerry Stackhouse said Jordan would throw things ''out of sync'' by entering the game midway through the first quarter. The Wizards (6-10) have lost six straight, making Jordan even more antsy as he sat on the bench.

Jordan and coach Doug Collins agreed that he wasn't ready to start at the beginning of the season because he had rested his knee so much over the summer and had played so little in the preseason.

''That is one of the reasons why me starting would have been disastrous,'' said Jordan, who turns 40 in February. ''I wasn't ready to start. Now, I'm ready to start. I've been waiting for the time when Doug felt like it was appropriate.

''Physically, I'm ready for it. I can play 37, 38 minutes if I have to. It's a different 37, 38 than last year. Last year, I was asked to carry a lot on both ends. Now I can divert some of that energy to Stack and other players.''

Asked if his desire to start was the result of his knees feeling better or his frustration over the losing streak, Jordan said: ''Both.''

''The third quarter is when we've been getting killed,'' said Jordan, who is averaging 29 minutes and 16 points. ''The one quarter we get outscored, we let a team back in, momentum switches and it's a fight from there to the end. Hopefully my difference is going to be felt in the third quarter.''

Jordan said he hopes to get in the lane more and shoot more free throws, rather than lingering on the perimeter as he did when he substituted for Bryon Russell. Jordan and Stackhouse have similar games, and they hope they can feed off each other better than they have.

''It gives our team a chance to get some continuity from the start and sustain it for the whole quarter,'' Stackhouse said, ''as opposed to start something, then break it off when Michael comes back in the game, and then we're out of sync.''

One drawback is that the move leaves the Wizards with no genuine scoring threat off the bench. Rookie Juan Dixon might have filled that role, but he was lost for three weeks when he sprained his elbow during Monday's practice.

Starting Jordan forces Collins to distance himself from the plans he stated at the beginning of the season. Collins said at the time that he needed to keep Jordan's minutes down -- to an average of about 30 -- to avoid a repeat of last season, when Jordan missed 22 games with knee injuries. Collins also didn't want to play Jordan at small forward because of the wear and tear of facing bigger players.

But such plans are at the mercy of Jordan. If Jordan says his knees are fine and that he wants to play more, then the coach has little choice but to play him more.

''Is there any guarantee?'' Collins said. ''If he wants to play more minutes, there is no guarantee that's not going to cause a problem. So we have to see how it goes.

''You guys are asking me to look into a crystal ball. When you get into your car, do you know it's going to start? But I know Michael's competitive enough to the point where he doesn't want to sit over there and watch us lose.''

As for playing small forward, Collins said Jordan and Stackhouse are frequently interchangeable, depending on the play or the defense. He also noted that there are few physical small forwards in the Eastern Conference.

''You've got a lot of big guards playing small forward,'' Collins said.

Although Jordan made it sound as if he were planning this promotion all along, it was Russell who actually set in the chain of events in motion. Russell's minutes at the start of the game were getting squeezed because Jordan was replacing him earlier and earlier. So, Russell finally went to Collins and said he wanted to come off the bench.

''He was playing, like, six minutes, and then it was get Michael in the game,'' Collins said. ''So it was tough for him.''

Rookie Jared Jeffries was given one start in place of Russell last Friday, but he got in foul trouble early and was a non-factor.

For the next game, Collins went with the obvious choice: Jordan.