Craig Smith Helps, Chris Kaman Hurts in Clippers' Loss to the Suns

PHOENIX -- Before the Clippers faced the Suns on Friday, the team's head coach Kim Hughes was informed that he would need to limit the minutes of reserve power forward, Craig Smith.

"He hurt his calf in practice, [or] probably in the [last] game," Hughes said prior to tip-off. "I got a text from [our trainer] that said I really need to limit his minutes, so I need to discuss that with him in detail. It kind of seems like a very subjective thing."

Subjective, indeed. Smith played 20 minutes -- almost four more than he averages per game on the season -- and put up 14 points in the second quarter, which helped erase all of his team's early 12-point deficit.

"It was feeling pretty good this morning," Smith said of his calf injury. "So I was just trying to come in and bring some energy to us, change up the game a little bit. And we were able to do that, put ourselves in a good position."

Smith credited the play-calling for his scoring outburst, namely the Clippers' pick-and-roll which seemed to be clicking to perfection.

"When we were getting stops, they weren't really getting back," Smith said. "And we were just using early drags, early screens to get our guard open and then rolling to the basket . They had a real tough time with our pick and roll."

As Smith pointed out, the Clippers were in a good position, trailing by just four points at halftime thanks to his dominant second quarter. But that all changed just 20 seconds into the second half, when Chris Kaman got himself ejected by picking up two quick technical fouls for arguing with an official.

Kaman was upset that the refs let a slap to his face go on one end, and then whistled him for a touch foul on the following possession. His team was able to hang around and briefly take the lead, but without Kaman in the lineup, the Suns regained control and went back up by double digits by the time the third period had ended.

Kaman declined to talk about the situation after the game, but Hughes didn't pull any punches.

"I told Chris that I thought he let the team down," Hughes said. "He crossed the line what he said to the referee. He wasn't getting calls, I agree with him, but it's not going to do any good by what he said to the officials, and after having one technical, you've got to be careful. He can't put the team in a position like that, he's too valuable to get thrown out. It's just ... it's a bad basketball play."

Baron Davis echoed his coach's thoughts.

"Chris has got to kind of, keep his cool," Davis said. "Especially being our All-Star center. He knows we need him, and it was just an unfortunate situation."

Without Kaman, the Clippers obviously lost some desperately-needed scoring and rebounding on the inside. And while Smith was able to make up for that in the first half, the injury seemed to get the best of him in the second.

"Yeah, you know, it locked up a little bit," Smith said.

Hughes noticed the difference in Smith in the second half, but was happy with his toughness and overall performance.

"He was killing it [in the first half], and couldn't do much in the second half because he was limited with the injury. But I thought he gave us what he could, he got a bad bruise on his thigh or upper hip area, and played as hard as he could and gave us a terrific effort. He just didn't have much left."

Smith said he'd be alright for the Clippers' next game on Sunday in Sacramento, but Hughes was taking a more cautious approach.

"I would say, if we were a football team, he'd probably be questionable," Hughes said.