All-Star small forward LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers left the game against the Sacramento Kings with 3:56 left in regulation. Whatever the actual nature of his illness may have been, James’ teammates encircled point guard Spencer Dinwiddie as LA’s closing lineup included him in his place.

What ailment it was unclear. With a grimace on his face, James asked to be removed from the match and went straight to the locker room, refusing to wait on the bench because the game was obviously out of his grasp.

With 31 points on 10-of-16 field goal shooting (including 1-of-4 from long range), 10-of-10 foul shooting, 13 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, and a disappointing but not entirely unexpected -3 plus-minus, the league’s oldest player ends the game early.

With 1:35 left, Los Angeles now trails 130-116 after trailing 122-108 at the beginning. The two clubs will get together once more in precisely one week. Sacramento will go to 35-26 on the year, while Los Angeles will drop to 34-30 unless there is an utterly amazing comeback in these final 95 seconds. Sacramento will now be 2.5 games ahead of Los Angeles in the win column following their anticipated triumph.

The ninth-seeded Lakers, who will need every victory to stay in the middle of the play-in race, might suffer greatly if James is sidelined for any length of time.