SALT LAKE CITY — The Lakers will be without star forward LeBron James for Saturday night’s matchup against the Utah Jazz, the team’s only game outside of Los Angeles from Jan. 1-26.
James was ruled out nearly four hours before tipoff because of left ankle peroneal tendinopathy (tendon pain on the outer ankle).
He turned his left ankle in the second quarter of Thursday’s 127-109 home loss to the Phoenix Suns, hobbling before retying his shoes and playing the remainder of the game, finishing with a season-low 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting to go with nine assists and five rebounds in 24 minutes.
Saturday will be just the fourth game that James, 39, has missed this season. Two of his other absences came on the second night of a back-to-back.
This story will be updated.