Lakers’ Ayton exits with knee injury; LeBron says elbow sore

DENVER — The Los Angeles Lakers lost starting center Deandre Ayton to a left knee issue early, then LeBron James to a left elbow injury late and are now one technical foul away from losing Luka Doncic to a one-game suspension.

Ayton played the first four minutes, 30 seconds of Thursday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets before checking out after picking up a foul with L.A. already down 15-3.

The center, who missed two games with right knee soreness before the All-Star break, sat out the rest of the Lakers’ 120-113 loss because of left knee soreness, according to JJ Redick.

Ayton left without speaking to reporters, but Lakers guard Marcus Smart, whose locker is next to his, spoke for him.

“He’s down,” Smart said. “For him, it sucked for him not to be out there in the game. He tried to go, and it just didn’t feel right for him, and it sucks. We definitely could have used him. I know as of lately he’s been getting a lot of backlash for his effort and his play. He understands it.

“I know it might not seem like it, but he does and he wants to do good, and he wants to help this team, and I think that’s what’s more frustrating for him, because he’s trying. But the way he’s trying is not working, and he’s still trying to figure it out. But he definitely was down tonight.”

James, meanwhile, banged his left elbow on the floor after scoring a layup with 4:05 remaining and absorbing contact from the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic. No foul was called.

“It’s pretty sore right now,” James said after the game. “It felt like one of those funny bone situations, but like, super more intense.”

James checked out of the game after a timeout and then tried to play again before ultimately sitting for the final 22.3 seconds. He iced the elbow after the game, and his longtime athletic trainer, Mike Mancias, put a compression sleeve on James’ left arm for the team’s flight back to L.A. on Thursday night.

James said he was unsure of his availability for L.A.’s game Friday against the Indiana Pacers on the second night of a back-to-back.

“We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days,” James said. “Hopefully, I’ll wake up [Friday] and it doesn’t feel too much worse than it is now. Or, if it feels better, that would be great. So, it’s day-to-day, we’ll see what happens.”

He sounded more perturbed with the no-call against Jokic than the injury itself.

“It’s the same s—,” James said when asked if he was given an explanation from the officials as to why Jokic was not called for a foul. “‘Marginal.’ It’s the same s—. … That’s all they keep saying is ‘marginal.’ I’m so f—ing tired of that word. It doesn’t make no sense.”

He was not the only Lakers player to have an issue with the referees.

Doncic was called for a technical foul by referee Dedric Taylor with 5:43 remaining in the second quarter.

Crew chief Ed Malloy, speaking to a pool reporter, explained the technical foul, which was whistled on the other end of the court after Doncic had yelled at Taylor.

“Doncic was issued a technical foul for using profanity directed towards a referee,” Malloy said. “We are trained not to stop an offensive transition when calling a technical foul on the defense.”

Doncic said he felt targeted by the ref’s decision.

“I heard three other players say the exact same sentence and didn’t get a tech,” Doncic said. “And that’s my problem. … I was trying not to talk at all. This is the first thing I said, no warning or nothing. But I heard three other players say the exact same thing, and nothing. So it’s just, you know … I don’t know what to say.”

It was Doncic’s 15th technical foul of the season. If he reaches 16, he will have to serve a one-game suspension.

Doncic has twice before reached 16 technicals in a season in his career, only to have the 16th rescinded before he had to serve the suspension.

He was asked if he will commit to not being called for a 16th with the Lakers this season.

“We’ll see,” Doncic said. “Can’t predict the future.”