Lamar Odom, Eric Bledsoe playing through injuries

Lamar Odom and Eric Bledsoe have been playing through their injuries (a sprained left ankle and a sore left hip, respectively) and did so again against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.

Odom was injured Sunday night in the second quarter of the game against the Phoenix Suns.

“He turned his ankle the other night pretty bad,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “Lamar’s a pro. He’ll be out there.”

Bledsoe injured his hip a week ago at Detroit but hasn’t missed any games.

“It’s a temporary injury,” Bledsoe said. “I’ll be all right. I’m good enough to go.”

Clippers get too technical

Del Negro likes his team to play with passion, but he also wants his players to compete with more composure.

Here’s the reason why: The Clippers lead the NBA in technical fouls with 27.

“We talked about it,” Del Negro said. “I want my guys to be aggressive out there. I want them to attack the basket. We’ve got to do a better job of controlling the emotions, especially late in games.”

Matt Barnes is tied for the league lead in technical fouls with eight.

Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan both have five technicals, which is tied for the third-most with two other players.

Odom has two; Jamal Crawford, Chris Paul and Ryan Hollins have one, and Del Negro has one.

When a player gets his 16th technical foul, he is fined $5,000 and suspended for one game.

“We have to do a better job as the season goes on controlling some of those things, because that can really hurt us,” Del Negro said.

About those sweaters …

As a way of continuing their bonding, the Clippers decided to do two things for Christmas.

They had a Secret Santa exchange in which a teammate bought another teammate a Christmas gift.

They also wore ugly Christmas sweaters. The idea came from Paul.

“It was a team thing to bring us closer together,” Jordan said.

But there were some ugly sweaters.

“We were all texting each other on the way [to the game], like, ‘Who’s there?’” Jordan said, laughing. “‘Is anybody on their way there?’ because nobody wanted to show up by themselves.”

Jordan said he waited for Griffin on the freeway so they could walk into Staples Center together.

Jordan was the secret Santa for Caron Butler.

Jordan said he bought Butler some shoes, a toiletry bag and Depends adult diapers.

“We always call him and a few guys old, so I got him some Depends,” Jordan said about Butler, who is 32. “He liked the gifts, but I think he liked the first two better than the third one.”

Butler smiled.

“I can’t wear the Depends,” Butler said.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

twitter.com/BA_Turner