Team Has Healthy Outlook

Darius Miles was feeling better Wednesday after missing Monday’s practice because of illness.

Michael Olowokandi played Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings after sitting out Tuesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers because of food poisoning.

Eric Piatkowski reported no ill effects from playing 25 minutes against the Trail Blazers. His strained hip flexor gave him no trouble.

Lamar Odom shot baskets before the Clippers played the Kings, then decided it was time to test his sprained right wrist.

Slowly, but surely the Clippers are getting healthy.

“We feel we can be a very effective team if we get everybody back healthy,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “But injuries are part of the NBA. That’s why you’re not supposed to talk about them.”

Some players might have missed a few games in an effort to soothe an injured left knee, but not Corey Maggette. He has played in all 31 games. After scoring 13 points in 30 minutes Tuesday against Portland, Maggette said, “I’m a warrior.”

Piatkowski, a Nebraska alum and the Clippers’ resident college football expert, offered no predictions for his beloved Cornhuskers in the Rose Bowl tonight against the Miami Hurricanes. He would allow that he was dead wrong about Pacific 10 Conference champion Oregon, which routed Colorado of the Big 12 in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday.

Piatkowski on the state of the Clippers after 30 games: “I don’t feel as though we’re playing good basketball right now. But we have been winning. In the past with the Clippers, I felt we had to play a perfect game to win. When we have put it all together this season, that’s when we’ve won by 20 or 30 points like we did against Indiana and Seattle.”