Marcus Camby

Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy declined to confirm Saturday a recent report that said various NBA teams have made trade offers for starting forward Marcus Camby . In the last year of a contract worth $9.1 million, Camby goes into tonight's game against the San Antonio Spurs ranked fifth in the league in blocks (2.1 per game) and sixth in rebounding (11.0 per game). "Marcus has been great," Dunleavy said. "We have a lot of guys that have a lot of interest from a lot of people."

Some things to keep an eye on when the Lakers (35-20) host the Houston Rockets (29-25) at Staples Center. 1. Will the Lakers' various injuries affect them? There's plenty that's keeping Lakers trainer Gary Vitti busy these days. Kobe Bryant has worn a protective boot because of a left shiny injury. Pau Gasol has a sleeve to cover his aching left elbow. Andrew Bynum is having constant treatment on his sprained left ankle. Ramon Sessions has a pad to protect his sprained left shoulder and tape to protect his jammed right index finger.

A chilling wind howled through the campus of the University of Massachusetts before dawn, but by the time afternoon rolled around, few students or alumni in this picturesque Northeast community felt the cold. Saturday afternoon inside Mullins Center, Marcus Camby, arguably the best college basketball player in the nation, warmed the hearts of a sellout crowd of 9,493 by returning to play for the first time since he mysteriously collapsed two weeks ago.

When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 980. Records: Clippers 27-50, Trail Blazers 47-30. Record vs. Trail Blazers: 1-2. Update: Yes, there are a few things to look forward to, even at this late stage of a Clippers season marked by futility. One is the chance to welcome back former Clipper Marcus Camby, who was traded to Portland on Feb. 16 for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw. Outlaw, by the way, is not expected to play tonight against his former team; he remains sidelined because of a strained right groin suffered Saturday at Denver.

Clippers tonight AT NEW ORLEANS When: 5 PST. Where: New Orleans Arena. On the air: TV: Prime; Radio: 980. Records: Clippers 17-19, Hornets 19-17. Record vs. Hornets: 0-2. Update : The Clippers will be without center Chris Kaman and could be at even more of a size disadvantage if Marcus Camby has not recovered from a stomach virus. Camby was only able to play in the first quarter Tuesday. -- Lisa Dillman

Will the Clippers' Christmas Day invitation get lost in the mail next year? Why that might happen was easy to see, and painfully simple to figure out. Not that it needed great detective work to uncover why the Clippers were crushed by the Phoenix Suns, 124-93, Friday night. The host Suns, who have defeated the Clippers six consecutive times, had seven players score in double figures. Overall, it was the Clippers' third consecutive loss and they haven't won since a potential winning shot at the buzzer in overtime by Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala was waved off by officials.

The building in which Marcus Camby lived as a child is abandoned now, its steel door welded shut, the lower windows covered with plywood. Camby learned to play basketball around the back, on a court with milk crates hooked to clothesline poles. He called it the crate league. "Marcus wasn't even the leading scorer," says Louis Sanchez, who played with Camby and still lives nearby. "Alfy was, but he's locked up now."

Look at it this way: The Clippers' training staff and Coach Mike Dunleavy are going to get in excellent shape if the first few days of camp are any indication. How so? Chasing after rookie and No. 1 draft pick Blake Griffin , who supposedly is limited in camp because of his injured left knee. "He's a guy you can't keep off the court," teammate Marcus Camby said after practice Thursday. "I mean, he's not supposed to be shooting and you've got Jasen [ Powell ]

It's not exactly true that Marcus Camby is the Last Clipper Standing, although there aren't many of them. Of course, there are none like him, with the Clippers or anyone else. At 34, chained to a team that started the weekend 8-30, he has just moved ahead of 23-year-old Dwight Howard for the league lead in rebounds and is No. 2 to him in blocked shots.

His season was fast slipping away, getting lost in that dreaded status known as INACTIVE. Then, last week, two things happened to second-year center DeAndre Jordan . He had a chat with Mike Dunleavy , initiated by the Clippers' coach. Secondly, Marcus Camby had an ailing left knee, and sat out against the Boston Celtics last Sunday. Jordan came away with a better understanding of his role on the team, and Camby's temporary absence gave the high-spirited youngster an opportunity to emerge from the depths of the bunker.

Wasn't that something? After last week's trades, in which some teams cleared the decks for this summer, and others, like the Lakers, stood pat because they're already in great (?) shape, everything is now imperfectly clear. We have a better idea of what the landscape will be, with Cleveland getting Antawn Jamison to help LeBron James, although he wanted Amare Stoudemire at first, and the Knicks getting their second maximum salary slot back after the shrinking cap had whittled them to 1 1/2 . What we await are the events that will take place on that landscape that will decide everything.

A day after their coach acknowledged they were out of the playoffs, the Clippers on Tuesday traded veteran Marcus Camby to Portland for guard Steve Blake, forward Travis Outlaw and $1.5 million in cash. The Clippers were willing to part with one of the NBA's top rebounders and defenders, General Manager Mike Dunleavy said, so they could acquire two younger players while giving more minutes to forwards Craig Smith and DeAndre Jordan. The Clippers also waived reserve guard Ricky Davis to clear a roster spot.

Anybody with basic math skills and a passing knowledge of NBA history had already figured it out. But with two months left in the season, it was still surprising to hear Clippers Coach Kim Hughes admit the obvious Monday. "We're out of the playoffs, clearly," he said. And with his Clippers heading into Tuesday's game at Portland 10 games under .500, trailing eighth-place Portland by 8 1/2 games in the Western Conference and having lost eight of their last nine, it's clear he's right.

His season was fast slipping away, getting lost in that dreaded status known as INACTIVE. Then, last week, two things happened to second-year center DeAndre Jordan . He had a chat with Mike Dunleavy , initiated by the Clippers' coach. Secondly, Marcus Camby had an ailing left knee, and sat out against the Boston Celtics last Sunday. Jordan came away with a better understanding of his role on the team, and Camby's temporary absence gave the high-spirited youngster an opportunity to emerge from the depths of the bunker.

The Clippers are entering a relatively appealing stretch of their NBA schedule that, among other things, should help injured players such as Marcus Camby get healthier. But it's an open question whether the Clippers (14-18) as a whole can find better form as well. The team plays only three games in the next nine days and all three are at Staples Center, starting Monday night against Portland. The Clippers play the Lakers on Wednesday night and then have three days to prepare for the Miami Heat on Jan. 10. "The schedule is definitely in our favor," said Camby, the veteran forward who is nursing a hyper-extended left knee even as he remains among the league leaders in rebounds and blocked shots.

Baron Davis was driving hard, pushing forward aggressively almost all night against the Boston Celtics, so why not do the same, verbally, in the Clippers' final timeout? So he spelled it out in clear, precise terms. "Coach, run this play for me. I'm gonna shoot and we're gonna win," Davis said he told Coach Mike Dunleavy. And what a wildly improbable story and finish. The Clippers scored five points in the final 8.5 seconds to defeat the Celtics, 92-90, the winning shot being a fadeaway jumper by Davis at the buzzer.

Question of the day: If there is a collision involving Craig Smith and another player, who usually ends up walking away untouched? Smith. And if the Clippers didn't know the answer to that question before Smith arrived back home in Los Angeles, well, it hasn't taken them long to find out. "He's a bull," said Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy. In fact, Smith's nickname is "the Rhino," but you get the general idea. Apparently "the Rhino" was a creation from Smith's days with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Marcus Camby, the second pick in the NBA draft who injured his right ankle in a scrimmage Sunday, will have an MRI examination on it to rule out any serious injury, the Toronto Raptors said. . . . An MRI examination revealed no serious damage to Jason Kidd's right knee, which became sore after Saturday's drills. He has not practiced since then. . . . Russ Granik, deputy commissioner of the NBA, was named president of USA Basketball for 1996-2000.

Will the Clippers' Christmas Day invitation get lost in the mail next year? Why that might happen was easy to see, and painfully simple to figure out. Not that it needed great detective work to uncover why the Clippers were crushed by the Phoenix Suns, 124-93, Friday night. The host Suns, who have defeated the Clippers six consecutive times, had seven players score in double figures. Overall, it was the Clippers' third consecutive loss and they haven't won since a potential winning shot at the buzzer in overtime by Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala was waved off by officials.