But a pair of those knees belonged to Cheryl Ford, who was practically skipping ahead of her teammates to the opposite baseline, grinning all the way.

And why not? A month to the day it was announced Ford would miss the rest of the regular season - and possibly longer - due to cartilage damage in her left knee, the All-Star forward practiced with her teammates for nearly 20 minutes of non-contact drills.

“I felt good,” said Ford, who completed stretches and then participated in a weave passing drill before stepping to the sideline for the duration, sweaty but in no apparent discomfort. “I felt good.”

While Ford was enthusiastic about returning to action - she had been limited to personal workouts with head trainer Laura Ramus - no one sounded overly hopeful that she would play in the first-round opener at New York Friday.

“My expectations were to see her run, see her run hard. That’s about it,” head coach Bill Laimbeer said. “I thought she ran hard. I thought she didn’t get tired. We intentionally kept her out of any 5-on-5. So for what I saw today, okay.”

It was nonetheless a positive development in Ford’s rehabilitation, according to Ramus, calling it nothing short of the best-case scenario. “Yes, that’s a simple one. Yes (it is),” she said. “This can take a year. This can take six months. It can take all different types of time frames. You just don’t know, and that’s why we’re cautiously optimistic, because we don’t know from day to day, even right now.”

Several WNBA playoff series begin Thursday, so the Shock may have caught a slight break by having one more day for Ford to heal. “When we wake up on Friday, we’ll know at least if she can go or not go, and how much she can go or not go,” Ramus said.

The precariousness of the situation is why Laimbeer, who is in full playoff mode and was even more intense at practice Tuesday than usual, isn’t demanding more of her. He said her involvement the rest of the week would be “pretty much along the same lines” as Tuesday. “Just to keep pushing it a little bit more on her running,” he said, “see how she feels tomorrow, see what she’s capable of doing, play it day by day and see what’s up.”

Ramus said in June that the femoral chondral defect in Ford’s left knee, inflicted during an awkward fall at Indianapolis July 20, would have to be fully healed before she would clear Ford to play. She will make that determination purely on what she sees Friday morning.

“It’s purely symptomatic, and obviously my eye knows when she’s at 100 percent and when she’s not and when she’s trying to hide something. I’ve worked with her long enough to know that,” Ramus said. “So it’s her feedback to me, and she realizes the importance of this and the importance of having the knee heal before she can be effective out there.”

Ford’s comprehension of the rehab process hasn’t made sitting out any easier to take, however. “I’m just used to playing, I’ve never sat out like this,” she said. “I’ve never had an injury like this. I mean sprained ankles, yeah, you’re out a couple days and you’re back. But sitting out like this has just felt so frustrating.”

I took a lot of my frustrations out on Laura, but she was very patient with me and stuff like that, so she got me through it,” said Ford, who quickly amended her statement. “Well, we’re getting through it.”

AfterShocks: With Ford not taking part in the strategic part of practice, Laimbeer had a chance to incorporate newcomers forward Tausha Mills, guard Tyresa Smith and forward Ayana Walker, who were added to the final Shock playoff roster released Tuesday.

But now that the regular season is over and he won’t be resting his starters, he didn’t feel particularly inclined to do so. “It’s not important because they’re not going to play very much, if at all,” he said. Laimbeer will look to them for healthy bodies to compete against the regular rotation in practice.