Coach Longs for a Healthy Stretch Run

If all goes as planned, the Clippers will do better than merely tread water in the next few weeks and all their injured players will return at top form, leading a playoff push in the final days of the season.

“That’s my hallucination,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “That’s what I would like to happen, anyway.”

Center Michael Olowokandi on Wednesday had an MRI exam on his sprained left knee and backup point guard Keyon Dooling had one on his injured left ankle.

The results will be made available today, after the team’s medical staff has reviewed both.

What’s more, the team announced small forward Corey Maggette will soon undergo arthroscopic surgery on his sore left knee, which has been troubling him for several months.

The Clippers thought it best for Maggette to take care of the knee trouble while he is sidelined because of dislocated bones in his right hand. His knee is expected to be sound before his hand.

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Houston Rocket guard Steve Francis has at least one young fan in Southern California, Gentry’s 4-year-old son, Ryan. Gentry secured a Francis bobble-head doll for his son, although he joked about performing voodoo on it before Tuesday’s game.

“I’m going to drip some chicken blood on it and stick it with some needles,” Gentry said. Adopting a more serious tone, he later added, “He’s one of the most gifted players in the league. I love the way he plays.”

Clipper forward Elton Brand, who was an Atlantic Coast Conference rival while playing for Duke against Francis’ Maryland teams, also is an admirer. Brand and Francis were the first two players selected in the 1999 draft and were also chosen co-rookies of the year.

“I’m finally getting a chance to beat him after losing most of the time when I was playing with the Bulls,” Brand said. “It will be a nice competition for both of us for a while.”

Brand continues to earn praise around the NBA for his blue-collar style of play.

“He’s solid, he’s granite,” Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said after Brand had 26 points and 15 rebounds in the Clippers’ 94-84 victory Tuesday. “Granite gets it done.”