Chris Paul is a game-time decision for Clippers against Dallas

Chris Paul said after practice Monday that there was “a little bit” of swelling in the left knee he bumped during Saturday night’s game but that “I should be all right.”

Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said Paul is a “game-time” decision for their game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.

Paul gave no indication that he wasn’t going to play, saying how much he looked forward to the Clippers’ four-game trip that starts in Dallas and goes on to New Orleans, San Antonio and Houston.

“I think he’ll be able to play,” Del Negro said. “How effective is he going to be? I know he was pretty sore today. If he doesn’t play tomorrow night, hopefully he’ll be ready for New Orleans. I don’t want him to play half-speed out there and have a setback. I feel he’ll be out there. I just don’t know how much and how sore he’ll be.”

Del Negro said guard Chauncey Billups, who sat out the last two games because of a strained right groin, also is a game-time decision.

Paul didn’t practice Monday, but he said this week’s schedule, with four games in five nights, is a “big trip for us.”

The team has a goal in mind for how it would like to finish, he said, and it’s not to go 2-2 or even 3-1.

“If somebody says that, then they are tripping because I feel like every trip we go on we try to go 4-0,” Paul said. “It all starts in Dallas. You can’t look past any games.”

Lamar Odom returns to Dallas

For the first time since he was let go by the Mavericks because of a disappointing season, Lamar Odom will play a game in Dallas.

Odom was traded from the Lakers to the Mavericks during the shortened 2011-12 season, and it was a rocky season for the forward. He averaged career lows in points (6.6), rebounds (4.2) and field-goal percentage (35.2%).

Odom, acquired in a trade from Dallas last June, is not tearing it up with the Clippers. He’s averaging another career low in points (4.1), but he is averaging 5.8 rebounds, third on the team.

“It’s another game, obviously,” Odom said. “But they have good people there. They treated me well. I wasn’t myself upstairs.”

Odom pointed to his head.

“It wasn’t usually how I am,” he said. “I wish them well and the team success. A lot of fans don’t understand that. They don’t really understand what goes on behind the scenes.”

Etc.

Clippers head athletic trainer Jasen Powell, who has been out recovering from surgery for a ruptured right Achilles’ tendon, was back at practice and was planning on making the four-game trip. ... The Clippers signed forward DaJuan Summers to a second 10-day contract.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner