The Los Angles Lakers will be without the services of LeBron James for Tuesday night's road game against the Milwaukee Bucks due to a sore groin, according to a report from Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times.

This is obviously tough news for the Lakers, but it should come as no surprise. James went down with a groin injury earlier this season and subsequently missed 17 games. It seems the team is giving the King this time as a precautionary measure.

In his last outing — a 124-123 loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday — James logged 35 minutes, scoring 33 points on 11-of-26 shooting from the field (0-of-6 from beyond the arc), eight assists, six rebounds and one block. He had a chance to win the game for Los Angeles in the closing seconds, but his shot was blocked by Mario Hezonja.

“He just missed shots,” Hezonja told ESPN, referring to James. “If you are saying that you are the reason that he is missing shots, you are an idiot.”

James has made 51 appearances with the Lakers this season (all starts), racking up averages of 27.5 points on 51.4 percent shooting (33.9 percent from downtown), 8.5 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 1.3 steals in 35.3 minutes per outing.

Tuesday night's Lakers-Bucks game is scheduled to tip inside the Fiserv Forum at 8:00 p.m. ET, with NBA TV having live broadcast coverage. Los Angeles has lost eight of their last nine, while Milwaukee is shooting fro the best record in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the 1973-74 season.