Clipper update: Decision time

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With the regular season fast approaching -- though not quite fast enough for our taste -- the Clippers are still facing a couple of critical decisions.

OK, semi-critical.

Who starts at small forward? Incumbent Al Thornton or veteran (but Clippers newcomer) Rasual Butler?

And power forward? The ageless Marcus Camby or the kid, rookie Blake Griffin?

The second decision is really no decision at all. Camby is out with a sprained left ankle and has barely started shooting on the court, let alone doing anything more active.

‘I’m assuming he [Griffin] is going to start based alone on Marcus being out,’ Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said. ‘And we’ll go from there.’

The regular season kicks off against the Lakers on Tuesday.

Thornton-or-Butler has not been decided. ‘I’ve got four days, five days to figure it out,’ Dunleavy said.

Thornton started in the Clippers’ final preseason game, against the Chris Paul-less Hornets on Friday night. Paul is out with flu-like symptoms, and Dunleavy said one of the Clippers’ doctors treated Paul earlier in the day.

And a pregame session wouldn’t be quite right without questions about what Dunleavy likes about Griffin’s game.

‘Everything. There’s actually nothing about his game that I don’t like,’ Dunleavy said. ‘You can’t say that about a whole lot of people. People, coming in, thought he wasn’t going to be a very good outside shooter. I think he’s going to be a better than good shooter.

‘There are things at his position he does as well as anybody I’ve seen . . . handle the ball well and pass the ball well for a power forward.’

--Lisa Dillman