Davis finds out how tough it might be

He had moments of brilliance and then there were expected twists and turns of frustration.

No one ever said this franchise-revival job was going to be an easy assignment.

Baron Davis, the point guard who came home again, fidgeted with the taping on his sprained left ring finger, had it retaped in the third quarter and played spectator for the fourth during the Lakers’ 117-79 victory over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

He said he would play about 30 minutes in his regular-season Clippers debut and almost hit that mark, going 28 minutes. The other numbers: 11 points, seven assists, three steals and five turnovers.

“We ran into a brick wall,” Davis said. “I said they’re a championship team. They know what they’re trying to accomplish. We’re trying to figure it out. But I didn’t think it was going to happen like that.”

It was his first game action since the exhibition opener against the Lakers in Fresno on Oct. 9. Clippers Karma then ensued, taking down Marcus Camby, Davis and Tim Thomas.

This Clippers curse, injuries and such, has taken on mythic proportions.

“At some point it has to stop, right?” Thomas said before the game. “It’s been weird. I remember one situation being on the road, I was actually just laying in the bed watching TV.

“There was a mirror next to the bathroom. The mirror completely fell off the wall. . . . It was one of those things that you think someone walked in the room or something like that.”

He called maintenance to clean up the glass. But there was a larger concern even though Thomas does not consider himself an overly superstitious man.

“I called all my aunts,” he said. “I called my wife to make sure what’s the right thing to do. Of course, they start praying and all of that for good luck, not the bad luck thing. It was pretty much it and then I went about my business.”

Thomas looked at the reporters around him and finished the story, appropriately, saying: “Imagine that. That’s a Halloween story for you.”

Might explain a few things about the Clippers too.

Injury update

Camby, out because of a bruised right heel, was being teased, and rightly so, about going to the cliches, so quickly and so adroitly when he called the season a “marathon, not a sprint.”

He spoke about his frustration in missing his first opening night in 13 years.

“I got the injection last Friday and my thinking was I’m going to wake up and it feels brand-new,” Camby said. “That wasn’t the case. Hopefully, I can get some contact in practice tomorrow and take it day by day.”

That doesn’t mean he is going to hit some playground out of desperation. “I’m not going to do what Greg Oden did last year and go to 24 Hour Fitness,” Camby said, smiling.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com