Clippers are healthy, but coach Doc Rivers still curious about his team

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Clippers were finally intact for practice after an injury-ravaged training camp.

On Thursday, the Clippers will take their healed group to Staples Center to play the Lakers in the season opener for both teams.

No one is more curious to see what this team has than Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

He has nine new players and had to navigate through camp with health concerns.

“Even if they had been healthy through camp, I still hadn’t seen them in a real game,” Rivers said. “Players play different sometimes when the popcorn starts and then they start looking at stats and all that stuff. It happens all the time. I don’t think that this is that type of team, but you never know. You’ll know tomorrow, for sure, and that’ll be good to see.”

Newcomer Patrick Beverley was the last of the Clippers to get over an injury, joining his teammates for practice the last two days.

Beverley’s right knee became sore in the second exhibition in Hawaii against the Toronto Raptors two weeks ago. He played in the third exhibition against the Portland Trail Blazers, but Beverley didn’t finish the game and had been out since.

Rivers will be cautious with his starting point guard against the Lakers.

“He would be the only one right now I would say there’s a chance that he has to play limited minutes, which would probably change what I would do with him,” Rivers said. “But other than that, right now there’s nobody else with any limits.”

First-year Clippers Danilo Gallinari (sprained left foot), Sam Dekker (strained left oblique), Sindarius Thornwell (sprained right shoulder) and Jamil Wilson (back spasms) have been healthy enough to practice this week.

Austin Rivers, who had a strained right glute in the first exhibition against the Raptors, also has been able to practice.

“It’s a big thing for us all are to be ready to play tomorrow,” Milos Teodosic, the 30-year-old rookie, said. “That’s something big.”

Admittedly, Teodosic said, he is eager to play in his first NBA regular-season game.

He spent the last 10 years playing in Europe, having been called the best player overseas to have never played in the big-boy league in the U.S.

“Yeah, I’m nervous,” Teodosic said. “The first game is not easy. Hopefully we’re going to start the season with a win. That’s the most important thing.”

“He’s played basketball for a long time and now for the first time he’s playing here and this is probably one of his dreams,” Doc Rivers said. “But he’s going to do it and he’s going to be great.”

Having a full team at practice has allowed Rivers the opportunity to try different schemes.

For one, he was able to put Blake Griffin at the center position.

“It’s nice to kind of put different groups out on the floor,” Rivers said. “We’ve done very, very little stuff with Blake at the five and that’s something we’re going to do during the season. I think we’ve played like four minutes with Blake at the five. We know we’re going to play a lot of that during the season, so we’re going to do a little bit of that [Wednesday]. But, it’s just nice having guys healthy.”

Last season, the Clippers started the season 14-2.

They were the toast of the NBA, but they soon fell back to the pack.

The Clippers hope to get off to a good start, beginning with the Lakers game on Thursday.

“I think each year you kind of realize more and more that first game doesn’t necessarily dictate the season,” Griffin said. “But it’s always important to get off to a good start. Last year we probably had the best start over the first 15, 17 games that we’ve had. After that, it falls off. Year after year you kind of realize that you’re starting off this marathon and it’s not like this 40-yeard dash.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner