They’ve added illness to injury

The Clippers came back from the road with two losses and a bit of the sickness bug.

Chris Kaman, on top of his bruised lower left leg, is suffering flu-like symptoms. So is Corey Maggette, who complained of aches and pains on the plane ride all the way from Memphis.

So the Clippers’ top two scorers were out Monday against the Charlotte Bobcats and the team had only nine players available.

When told Maggette wouldn’t be playing, Sam Cassell quickly pulled out his cellphone. “I need to get 5-0 on the phone,” he said.

It was to no avail.

“Man . . . people say things can’t get worse,” Cassell said. “They can.”

Kaman and Maggette are listed as day to day.

Coach Mike Dunleavy said everybody gets sick at some point during a season.

“I remember a playoff game I had in Portland at the old arena, Memorial Coliseum, when I was coaching with the Lakers, and at the end of the third quarter, between our timeout, I had to run to the bathroom,” he said. “I got sick and came back.”

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Reserve forward Aaron Williams, who sat out 17 games before starting against the Memphis Grizzlies in place of Kaman on Saturday, is still limited by a bruised left wrist.

“It still bothers me,” said Williams, who received two cortisone shots for the pain last week.

Williams played seven minutes, missing his lone field-goal attempt.

“It was kind of an emergency,” Dunleavy said. “There is certain stuff he can and can’t do. We started him out to get a feel and see how things would go and he gave us some minutes. Then, as the game developed, the game got to a smaller game. As it got smaller, there was no need for that. If it stayed bigger, for instance, if they had played [Pau] Gasol and [Darko] Milicic, he would have had to play a few minutes.”

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Dunleavy said he hadn’t talked to Cassell about the trade rumors involving the veteran point guard.

“In most cases, I probably would,” he said. “But in half the cases, Sam does the talking. Sam is talking more about it than I am hearing. Everybody is bringing it up to him, so he hears it.

“I joke around with him a little bit about it. He’s putting his resume out there. Sam is a veteran. He’s 38. Sam’s been around forever. He knows the ropes to the game.”

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The Clippers are not immediately looking to fill their empty 15th roster spot, created by their parting with guard Guillermo Diaz.

“There’s some guys with situations we are looking at and we are going to make decisions,” Dunleavy said. “Believe me, we’ll look at it and figure out what we can do to help our team in any way. But right now, there is nothing that is glaring that can potentially help us.”

Diaz is headed back to the Anaheim Arsenal, the Clippers’ Developmental League affiliate.

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jonathan.abrams@latimes.com