Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was forced to exit Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers with an apparent groin issue.

James appeared to sustain the injury midway through the fourth quarter of the contest. He was spotted holding his groin area while heading to the tunnel and into the locker room. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN noted, he left with 5:41 on the clock and didn't return.

https://twitter.com/nbadaves/status/1590573724339957761

The Lakers called LeBron James' injury a left leg soreness. However, the severity of the issue has yet to be revealed.

James played for 32 minutes in the game and tallied 30 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals prior to his exit. He went 12-of-22 from the field, including 4-of-9 from deep as he finally put an end to his shooting slump.

In his absence, however, the Lakers were unable to stage a comeback. Already trailing by 12 points when he left, the Purple and Gold ended up losing 114-101.

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The hope now is that James' injury isn't serious and that he won't need to be sidelined for long. At age 37 and Father Time clearly catching up to him, the last thing the Lakers would want is for their superstar to sustain any type of a long-term injury. James also missed their previous game against the Utah Jazz due to a left foot soreness.

Los Angeles dropped to 2-9 on the season with their fourth straight loss on Wednesday night. Sure enough, though, that is the least of Darvin Ham and LA's concerns right now.

UPDATE: After the game, James discussed his injury with reporters.

“How do I feel right now? I feel good. Besides the injury,” LeBron said. “We’ll get pictures on it tomorrow and go from there. But I didn’t do anything extraneous on the play. Just when I landed, I felt a little spasm or strain in my groin. So immediately I had to come out after that on the next play down when I went to the free throw line.

“I’ll go around (the clock) treatment for 24 hours, and if it’s OK on Friday, I’ll be in the lineup,” he added.