Craig Smith is ejected for flagrant foul

The Clippers’ already thin bench took yet another hit early in the second quarter Monday when Craig Smith was ejected for a flagrant two foul, shaking up the San Antonio Spurs’ George Hill for a few minutes.

Yes, that would be the very definition of clotheslining.

Hill did not get up quickly and had his neck looked at on the bench.

It led to Smith’s automatic ejection, which will cost him a $6,000 fine and a possible suspension from the league, as the NBA reviews all flagrant fouls. He probably didn’t help himself by slapping hands with fans on his way to the locker room.

This was Smith’s second game after sitting out the first two because of lingering issues with his back.

Davis talks

Baron Davis answered all the questions in his pregame session with the media.

This didn’t mean it all made sense.

“I know a lot of times people kept saying for the last two years that I come into camp out of shape, the previous two years, but I keep that to myself. I keep that to myself,” Davis said.

Keep what to yourself?

Davis, well, kept that to himself.

“I played in every preseason game,” he said. “My first preseason game here, when we played the Lakers, I had a really good game, and everybody was saying, oh, how great a shape I was [in], and then I got hurt.”

Ah, yes, there’s always Fresno and that victory over the Lakers.

Davis wanted to revisit that territory only on his own terms. In fact, his availability for the season opener his first season in Los Angeles came down to the wire.

“Yeah. We’re not going to get into that, though,” Davis said. “That’s old Clipper news. That’s old Clipper news. That’s old Clipper news.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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