He fights being a tape player

Al Thornton is having a sticky situation with tape.

Thornton, averaging 6.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in his rookie season with the Clippers, never taped his ankles in high school games or while at Florida State.

He sprained and then re-sprained his right ankle this season, sitting out two games, and is hesitant to use tape or a brace as a precaution to prevent further injury.

“I don’t like playing with it -- tape or braces,” he said. “I feel restricted and it’s all about feeling comfortable when you are playing.”

Coach Mike Dunleavy agreed, but said the team is nudging him toward taping up.

“He feels really restricted at times -- that it hurts his performance,” Dunleavy said. “So therefore he doesn’t want to do it, particularly like game time.

“Basically, what we are doing is, he has to tape them in practice and when it comes to the game, as long as he’s not hobbled at all, we’ll kind of roll the dice a little bit with it and try to get him used to it.”

Thornton needed some budging, but said he’s leaning toward using the tape to escape re-injuring the ankle.

“It’s still sore,” Thornton said. “Just to be on the safe side . . . I’m going to tape.”

In training camp, Dunleavy said he usually has a pretty good feel for how a season will turn out by the 20-game point.

The Clippers are there, but Dunleavy still hasn’t seen his full complement of players on the court much.

“You look around the league and you have certain teams who have had the same starting lineup all year long and you look at us and we are in double digits with starting lineups based on who’s been available,” Dunleavy said.

“If we are healthy we are pretty good; if we are not healthy we are at risk.”

Quinton Ross sat out Wednesday’s game after suffering a lower-back contusion against the New Jersey Nets while jostling for a rebound.

“I woke up and it was still sore and hurting real bad,” Ross said. “We’ll see how it feels day to day and hopefully it will feel better soon.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com