The Lakers played the final six-plus minutes of Saturday’s marquee matchup at TD Garden without the services of LeBron James.

James exited toward the locker room with 6:44 remaining in Los Angeles’ 111-101 loss to the rival Celtics. He was ruled out shortly thereafter with what the team called a groin strain.

James downplayed the injury when speaking with reporters postgame.

“Not much concern,” he said. “Obviously, we go day to day, look at it each day, see if it gets better, and take the proper measurements to see what we need to do going forward.”

The 40-year-old tallied 22 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists in 35 minutes before his early exit. He said he suffered the injury on his final basket of the game.

“It was the last play, the last score I had,” James said. “Spun on Jaylen Brown. You know, maybe extended it a little bit too much. A couple pivots, and then when I landed, I felt it.”

Lakers head coach JJ Redick said he was “obviously concerned” about James’ status but had no new information to share.

Los Angeles cut Boston’s lead, which peaked at 22 points, down to four after James’ departure. But the Celtics pulled away late, with Jayson Tatum (40 points) and Brown (31 points) outscoring the Lakers 12-6 over the final 4:35.

James’ Lakers co-star, Luka Doncic, scored a team-high 34 points but committed five turnovers in his first game in Boston since last season’s NBA Finals.

“I mean, hopefully it’s nothing,” Doncic said of James’ injury. “Obviously, to get injured at this time, those injuries are – I don’t want to say the worst, but they are tough to deal with. So, just take his time and we got to have as a team a next-man-up mentality.”

Both teams entered the game ranked second in their respective conferences. Boston hosts Utah on Monday night. LA visits Brooklyn.