{"id":712257,"date":"2026-04-17T07:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:31:07","slug":"lebron-james-prepares-for-playoff-rivalry-against-kevin-durant-and-the-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712257\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Prepares for Playoff Rivalry Against Kevin Durant and the Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James<\/a> and Kevin Durant<\/a> will relive a long-standing rivalry in the first round of the NBA<\/a> Playoffs. James\u2019 Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will face Durant and the Houston Rockets<\/a> in the first round of the postseason.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fourth-seeded Lakers who will have home-court advantage against the fifth-seeded Rockets. Game 1 at Crypto.com Arena is on Saturday. This will be the latest and potentially one of the last times James and Durant will face off in the playoffs as their respective careers near their conclusion.<\/p>\n

James, 41, is now in his 23rd season in the NBA. Durant, on the other hand, is in Year 19 and will turn 38 later this year.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) defends against Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7).<\/p>\n

James knows Durant all too well. The NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer has faced off against Durant many times in the past, and James is very familiar with how he operates.<\/p>\n

This is exactly why James admitted that the Lakers are wary of Durant in their upcoming series. At the same time, however, the 22-time All-Star made it abundantly clear that they aren\u2019t looking past what Durant\u2019s teammates are capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the head of the snake,\u201d James said of Durant. \u201cBut it\u2019s the Houston Rockets and they have some damn good players on that team. So, it\u2019s not just a KD team. \u2026 KD is going to do what KD does. \u2026 We know that. We have to prepare not only for him, but the whole group\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant may be the biggest name on the Rockets\u2019 roster, but he has an elite supporting cast around him. James and Co. also have to deal with the likes of Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson, to name a couple.<\/p>\n

With Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves sidelined<\/a>, the Lakers are considered the underdogs heading into the Rockets series. The Rockets are currently listed as -600 favorites<\/a> to win the series.<\/p>\n

Related: LeBron James Addresses Lakers’ Upcoming Bronny James Decision<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James and Kevin Durant will relive a long-standing rivalry in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,1013,7,292,194,4066,938,185,150,368,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-712257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-austin-reaves","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-houstonrockets","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-luka-doncic","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116418883385915121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}