Jordan Hill will not play tonight when the Lakers (21-40) host the Clippers (42-20) in a designated home game at Staples Center, and the reasons won’t just entail falling out of Mike D’Antoni’s rotation.

The Lakers also discovered Hill has soreness in his right knee and are listing him as day-to-day. It could’ve been worse. The Lakers feared cartilage damage in his right knee, but x-rays turned out negative.

Either way, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni sounded skeptical Hill could suit up Friday in Denver.

“This will be tough with this many games,” D’Antoni said.

Not that it makes much of a difference anyway. Hill has averaged 8.2 points and 6.8 rebounds, but he hasn’t played in the last two games along with seldom-used center Chris Kaman. In addition toward opting for a smaller lineup, D’Antoni has also chosen second-year center Robert Sacre as a reserve over Kaman and Hill, citing Sacre’s superior defense.

“I don’t think they can do anything right now. If they’re not in the game, you can’t do anything,” D’Antoni said. “We’re going with this right now and we’ll see how this goes. Everybody has different characteristics and can contribute. But we think team-wise, this is the best way to go.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com