Clippers’ Chris Paul rests as Coach Vinny Del Negro prevails

Chris Paul said he wanted to play, that he even argued with Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro, who had the final say on his All-Star point guard’s not playing against the Lakers on Wednesday night at Staples Center because of a sore right thigh.

With the Clippers playing another game Thursday night in Denver, Del Negro said he wanted to rest Paul.

Paul suffered the injury in practice Monday when he was hit on the thigh, but he is expected to play against the Nuggets.

“I told Coach I wanted to play,” Paul said. “But he won this time.”

Del Negro said that Paul has been going strong since training camp began on Sept. 29 and that this was a good time to give him time off.

“It was a little sore,” Del Negro said about Paul’s thigh. “If it was the regular season, he would play. But it’s more of the back-to-back, coming back from the [right] thumb injury. He had a long summer. I’m not particularly worried about him. He works out all the time so he’s going to be in shape.”

Hill’s time frame

Grant Hill, who has already had one MRI exam that showed he has a bone bruise in his right knee, said Wednesday night that he plans to get another examination soon.

Hill said he won’t be ready for the start of the Clippers’ regular season Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, and that it’ll be awhile before he can play in a game.

“I think I’ll be out another two weeks or so, I hope,” Hill said. “I just want to make sure it’s right. We don’t want to rush it.”

Lamar Odom (bone bruise in left knee) and Chauncey Billups (recovering from left Achilles’ tendon surgery) also didn’t play against the Lakers.

Del Negro said the hope is that Odom can play in the season opener.

“He was trying to battle through [the injury], but it got to the point where it was not making sense,” Del Negro said. “So that was when he changed the process for him. He knows he needed to be in better shape coming in. They tried to tax his body a little bit and this is the result.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner