LeBron James could miss four or five more games for the Los Angeles Lakers after re-aggravating his right ankle on Sunday night.

According to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times, the flaring up of James' recently sprained ankle could cause the Lakers to take an extra-conservative approach and hold him out until the last two or three games of the season.

LA's final three contests will come at Staples Center versus the New York Knicks on May 11, followed by a road back-to-back against the Indiana Pacers (May 15) and New Orleans Pelicans (May 16).

“My understanding is that he may not be back until, perhaps, the end of the season,” Turner said of the Lakers star on NBATV. “Maybe he plays two or three games before the season is over. But the idea is to make sure LeBron James is 100 percent healthy. Obviously, he was feeling the ankle the last two games he played. They want to make sure he's not feeling any discomfort, and that he's healthy going into the playoffs.”

Earlier on Tuesday, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that James would miss, at least, the Lakers' next two games—another road back-to-back this Thursday and Friday against the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers. Woj noted that James had “experienced some trouble making hard cuts and exploding.”

Following James' return after 20 games, in a loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday, the four-time MVP lamented the lack of practice time available in the 2020-21 condensed schedule to test out his ankle before jumping into live-action.

“I haven’t played in a game in six weeks, no contact, no 5-on-5. I’ve been doing a bunch of individual workouts and a lot of running, trying to keep my heart rate going, my conditioning going,” he said. “I felt OK. As far as my wind, I felt pretty good.”

He didn't exactly give a glowing report of his ankle.

“As far as my ankle, my ankle was a little tight at times, obviously just doing different movements, different things that I haven’t done in a game situation in six weeks. So, I think as the games go on that will continue to improve. But I came out unscathed,” the Lakers star added.

On Sunday, James experienced a “sharp pain” in his ankle in the second half and exited with about seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. He was clearly frustrated in his postgame remarks, which came after a loss (see: play-in tournament) to the Toronto Raptors.

“There ain’t no damn practice time,” James griped. “It’s not the season for it. … I don’t want to say I came back too early, but I had to test it out and see where I was at.”

The Lakers (37-28) have lost six of eight games. They only lead the Dallas Mavericks by 0.5 games for the no. 5 seed, but Dallas owns the tiebreaker. LA is one game up of the Blazers for the play-in tournament, and Friday's game will decide the season series.

Without James, the Lakers ended their three-game losing skid with a desperate win against the Denver Nuggets on Monday.

The Lakers' mission is daunting. They have seven games to solidify their seeding, rotation and chemistry, but they will be without James and their secondary lead ball-handler, Dennis Schröder (health and safety protocols) for much of that time. Not ideal.

Fortunately, Anthony Davis looked like himself again on Monday, for the first time since February. The Lakers will need that guy to keep showing up.