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Marcus Camby already getting ready for the summer

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Being on the outside with face pressed against the playoff glass -- not a pleasant view, to be sure -- had the Clippers’ Marcus Camby thinking about the future.

“This is the first time in five years I’ve missed the playoffs,” he said.

So he plans to go someplace else.

No, not New York. Or Denver.

Las Vegas.

“A couple of weeks ago, me and Baron [Davis] and Zach [Randolph] were talking about how we need to get together during the summertime,” Camby said Friday at the Clippers’ practice facility. “I’m always in Vegas during summer-league time.

“We’re talking about everybody meeting in Vegas and working out together playing pickup ball, just to get familiar with each other and stay in contact with each other during the off-season.”

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Familiarity has been an elusive concept for the Clippers, stuck at 18 wins with seven games remaining on the schedule.

It is unclear how many of those final seven games will feature Camby, who has a sprained ankle. Tonight at Denver won’t be one of them.

Short-staffed in Denver

The Clippers traveled to Denver on Friday, leaving Camby, Chris Kaman, Al Thornton and Mardy Collins, among others, back home in Los Angeles.

Kaman missed practice because of flu-like symptoms. Thornton is out with a bone bruise of his left foot, and Collins appears done for the season because of plantar fasciitis.

“There’s nothing you can put a finger on,” Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We’ve gone way out in space as far as picking them out. We go right across the spectrum of injuries.”

Camby is ready to hit the delete button on 2008-09.

“From a mental aspect, I want to erase everything that went on this year,” he said. “I felt, and we all felt, this season should have been a whole lot better than what it actually turned out to be.

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“Our focus right now is to build for next season. I’m committed about being here. I feel like once I’m in a situation, once I’m in an organization, I give my all, on and off the court.

“I don’t want it to end the way it did this season, having a dismal season.”

Injuries have limited Camby to 58 games and will cost him because of his incentive-laden contract. Two more games would get him to $9.5 million this season. But Camby wasn’t bemoaning the lost dollars.

“It’s my first time talking about it, since you brought it up,” Camby said. “I don’t worry about it too much, stuff like that. Money is definitely money, but I’ve made and saved a lot through my 13 years.”

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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