LOS ANGELES — The uncomfortable reality of injuries, a sore spot for the Los Angeles Lakers all season, went from bad to worst for them Sunday.

It definitely wasn’t great when the team announced earlier in the day that LeBron James would sit out against the Minnesota Timberwolves because of flu-like symptoms.

Then, Anthony Davis left the game for good after getting poked in the eye in the final seconds of the first quarter.

Trouble intersected with trouble and the result was an almost predictable 127-117 Lakers loss at Crypto.com Arena.

Davis left shortly after getting accidentally hit by Minnesota’s Kyle Anderson while the Lakers center dunked in an offensive rebound. He injured the same eye for the second time in the last three weeks, initially suffering a corneal abrasion after getting inadvertently poked against Golden State.

The loss pushed the Lakers (45-34) back to the exact spot they finally vacated a day earlier: ninth place in the Western Conference.

They will host a massively important game Tuesday against 10th-place Golden State. Not only are the Warriors merely 1.5 games behind the Lakers in the standings, but the head-to-head tiebreaker will be at stake too in case the teams finish with the same record. The Warriors currently lead it, 2-1.

Lakers coach Darvin Ham didn’t have any updates on Davis, who left the arena long before the game ended. Ham called him an “extremely valuable” part of the team.

The Lakers didn’t have much trouble scoring but couldn’t stop Minnesota.

Center Naz Reid continued to puncture the Lakers by scoring 31 points, including six three-pointers for the Timberwolves, who played well yet again without injured big man Karl-Anthony Towns. Reid scored 25 against the Lakers last month in another Minnesota win.

How can the Lakers stop the smooth-shooting big man?

“I don’t know, man,” Ham said. “We’ve gotta figure it out, though. We could see these guys again in the postseason.”

With the win, Minnesota (54-24) moved into a tie with Denver for first in the West and loom as a potential first-round playoff opponent if the Lakers make it out of the play-in tournament.

That’s a slightly larger “if” after Sunday’s loss. The Lakers trail seventh-place New Orleans by 1.5 games and eighth-place Sacramento by half a game.

Forward Rui Hachimura scored 30 points, but the Lakers’ starting backcourt had trouble with accuracy all night.

D’Angelo Russell’s torrid shooting streak took a step back when he went a frigid five for 19 overall, including one for seven from three-point range. He finished with 15 points and 11 assists.

Russell’s backcourt mate Austin Reaves made only four of 14 shots and finished with 14 points and four turnovers.

The Lakers gave up a whopping 79 points in the first half as Minnesota outscored them by 18 from the three-point line.

Reserve center Jaxson Hayes had four dunks to ignite a brief third-quarter Lakers rally, but they never seriously threatened after that. Hayes finished with a season-high 19 points and added 10 rebounds.

Despite the loss and his personally poor shooting night, Russell tried to sound optimistic.

“I think we just finish this season strong, finish these games strong and whoever we match up with, we go full force,” he said. “It’s experience versus inexperience in the playoffs that kind of gets you over the hump. So I like our chances versus anybody.”