LeBron James has to sit out the Lakers' preseason finale against the Warriors

PHOENIX – LeBron James' preseason is over and the 39-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star has a week off between games before Tuesday's regular-season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

James was ruled out of the Lakers' game on Thursday against the Phoenix Suns, and a source familiar with James' plans confirmed to ESPN that the forward will not play in LA's preseason finale against the Golden State Warriors on Friday.

TNT's Jared Greenberg first reported James' plans on the Lakers-Suns broadcast.

James is entering his 22nd season, tying Vince Carter for the most in league history.

“DNP-old,” Lakers coach JJ Redick joked in his pregame remarks Thursday about James' reason for taking a break. “Taken from (Gregg Popovich’s) book.”

Redick was referring to the San Antonio Spurs coach who referred to then-36-year-old Tim Duncan as “old” when his team had just played three games in four nights in the big man's penultimate game of the 2013-14 season.

James finished the preseason with averages of 12 points on 46.9% shooting (57.1% from 3), 4.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.0 turnovers in 18.5 minutes over three games. LA went 1-2. Redick had originally hoped to use Thursday as an extended dress rehearsal and give players a break on Friday in San Francisco on the second night of a meeting, but those plans changed when James and Rui Hachimura (calf strain) were both sidelined against the Suns.

“I think you have to take all factors into consideration and you don't often live in an idealized world in this league and that's okay,” Redick said. “In this league you don’t often get to live things out the way you want, and that’s okay. We had a dress rehearsal today – game day filming, filming, all that –. And we'll do the same for our foreplay. It's simply the first time we've done this in the entire preseason.

“So we still have to do some things that we’ve always wanted to do.”