The Clippers may get center Chris Kaman and point guard Baron Davis back next week.

Kaman is dealing with a sprained left ankle and admitted that he pushed things after suffering the injury in practice.

"The true story is I kind of jumped the gun," Kaman said. "I was feeling good and I was walking around feeling good. So I thought I was going to be good to play sooner than later. I tried to go out there two days ago to do some stuff.

"I can't jump off it yet like I want to without a lot of pain. I can do single-leg toe raises, can't do many single-leg jumps. I'm working on getting more strength now."

Meanwhile, Los Angeles coach Vinny Del Negro says that Davis could return soon as well.

"We want to get a couple more practices out of him and see exactly where he is before we put him out there," Del Negro said of Davis, who is dealing with a swollen left knee.

Clippers center Chris Kaman wants to return to the floor on Thursday.

Kaman has been out since Nov. 9 with an ankle injury and a Thursday return would be about a week ahead of schedule.

"I think I'll play Thursday," Kaman said Monday night.

"Our trainers have done a good job, and I've been doing everything I can to get back."

Kaman will practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and then be re-evaluated on Thursday.

"He thinks that," coach Vinny Del Negro said of Kaman's chances to play Thursday. "But we have to see how he does Tuesday and Wednesday, see how his ankle reacts. If we play him Thursday and it blows up, then he's out again.

"We have to be smart about it. He's a little more optimistic because he wants to get out there."

Clippers point guard Baron Davis is still targeted for a Thanksgiving return to the court.

Davis has been out with a swollen knee.

Los Angeles coach Vinny Del Negro said that Davis "hopefully, will be back (playing) by Thanksgiving - that's the (target) date but we'll see how it works out."

Davis last played on Nov. 9.

Clippers rookie forward Blake Griffin scored a career-high 44 points in the team's loss to the Knicks on Saturday night.

Griffin added seven assists, also a career-high, and 15 rebounds to his impressive stat line.

The first overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Griffin is averaging 18.5 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.

Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro says he'll rest point guard Baron Davis until Thanksgiving in hopes that he'll recover from a bad knee.

"We're going to give him a couple of weeks to get right and see where he is after that," Del Negro said. "You know, his knee has been bothering him and we've got to get him right.

"Nothing major. But it's a long season and we need him to play at a level where he can really help us."

Clippers center Chris Kaman sprained his left ankle in the first quarter of the team's loss to the Hornets on Tuesday night.

The initial diagnosis is a second-degree sprain which will sideline Kaman for 2-3 weeks, according to the Clippers.

Kaman is averaging 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

Clippers rookie forward Blake Griffin says he wants to play for Team USA at the 2012 Olympics in London.

According to Chris Tomasson of FanHouse, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo says Griffin is on the "watch list."

On Wednesday, the Clippers withdrew a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing their former coach and general manager Mike Dunleavy of fraud.

It will now be heard April 18 by an arbiter at Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services in Santa Monica, Dunleavy's lawyer Miles Clements said.

"They argued to the arbitrator that we had to go to state court for this and the arbitrator ruled that all of these claims are arbitrable and that kind of made the state court suit moot," Clements said.

"Arbitration is a win for us. You get to the result more quickly and, the prevailing party is entitled to all attorney's fees and costs so if you have a case with merit, which we believe we do. You would much prefer to be brought in an [arbitration] proceeding where you can recover your attorney's fees."

The Clippers are exploring whether anyone has interest in acquiring point guard Baron Davis via trade, according to a report by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.

Los Angeles coach Vinny Del Negro recently criticized the veteran's conditioning and the team won their first game of the season this week with Davis out of the lineup because of a swollen left knee.

Davis has three years and $41.8 million left on his contract, including this season.

After initially denying coach Vinny Del Negro's claim that he's out of shape, Clippers point guard Baron Davis admitted that he didn't report to training camp as he should have.

"I usually get in shape in August," Davis said.

"I've been doing that for the last six years of my career. This August I started working out and getting ready to go and it got a lot harder. It wasn't like I wasn't doing anything but my body wasn't responding as quickly as it usually does and I think I kind of faced that reality this summer. That was a problem that hit me and kind of caught me off guard because it never really happened to me before in my career. Getting in shape was never really a problem for me before but these nagging injuries have taught me a lesson. This summer was a dose of reality that I need to start training differently and earlier."