![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270802175_9d1d98-e1776522266475.jpg\")
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 10: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on during the first half of a game against the Phoenix Suns at Crypto.com Arena on April 10, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
LeBron James<\/a> is the de facto leader for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> as they begin the 2026 NBA Playoffs against the Houston Rockets<\/a> without Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves.<\/a><\/p>\n While that might sound like a tall task for the 41-year-old, leading the Lakers without their two leading scorers, James isn\u2019t new to the playoffs, and with his resume, has proven to be a top-tier performer when the lights are brightest, despite being the oldest player in the league.<\/a><\/p>\n Before the Lakers vs Rockets playoff series begins, the NBA<\/a> announced news about James as he begins what is his 19th postseason appearance.<\/p>\n NBA Announces LeBron James News Before Lakers Playoffs Begin<\/p>\n In a post on X<\/a>, the NBA confirmed that once the Lakers\u2019 Game 1 against the Rockets begins, James will be tied for the most playoff appearances in NBA history.<\/p>\n With his 19th appearance in the postseason, James will tie both John Stockton and Karl Malone for the most in the history of the sport, as those two did it in the 1980s, \u201990s, and early 2000s with the Utah Jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n LeBron James will begin his 19th trip to the NBA Playoffs, tying Karl Malone and John Stockton for the most in league history.<\/p>\n James is the career playoff leader in multiple categories, including points.<\/p>\n The Lakers host the Rockets in Game 1 on Saturday at 8:30 PM ET on ABC. <\/p>\n In his 23 seasons, James has only missed the playoffs four times in his career<\/a>. His early Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> teams didn\u2019t make the postseason in his first two seasons, while he also missed out on the playoffs in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons with the Lakers. However, he did have a 13-year playoff streak, a run that included a historic eight Finals appearances in a row<\/a>.<\/p>\n James is also the NBA playoffs leader in several top statistical categories. He has scored the most points<\/a>, played the most games and minutes, made the most shots, recorded the most steals, while also second in assists and fourth in rebounds.<\/p>\n James has the chance to add to those totals this postseason with the Lakers, but it won\u2019t come easy, as Los Angeles is not favored to beat Houston<\/a> in the first round as long as they are without Doncic and Reaves.<\/p>\n LeBron James Is They Key For The Lakers Until Luka Doncic And Austin Reaves Return<\/p>\n As mentioned, despite the oldest player in the NBA, James holds the car keys for the Lakers in the first round until either Doncic or Reaves comes back, which remains to be determined for the time being.<\/p>\n \u201cCan the 41-year-old James\u00a0turn back the clock<\/a>\u00a0and lead his team to postseason glory again? He wasn\u2019t supposed to carry such a burden this season. But just as James was becoming comfortable as the Lakers\u2019 No. 3 option, the two players ahead of him (Doncic and\u00a0Austin Reaves)\u00a0sustained injuries,\u201d\u00a0Zach Kram wrote on James for the Lakers\u2019 upcoming playoff series<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to recent updates, Doncic or Reaves, depending on the source,<\/a> could come back at some point in the Lakers playoff series against the Rockets. However, at the earliest, that would be later in the series, potentially Game 6 or 7.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo now James \u2014 whose 20.9 PPG represented both a career low for him, and by far the most points in NBA history for a player at his age \u2014 will have to dig deep to keep the Lakers alive long enough for Doncic and Reaves to return.\u201d<\/p>\n So for now, it\u2019s up to James to lead Los Angeles and extend their series against Houston. That remains a tall task, but for the Lakers, they have the perfect man for the job, someone who has more playoff experience than anybody else in NBA history.<\/p>\n The Lakers vs Rockets first-round playoff series begins on Saturday, April 18, with tipoff for Game 1 scheduled at 5:30 pm PST and live on ABC.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEli Gregorski<\/a> is a sports journalist covering the NBA for Heavy Sports. He has years of sports writing experience covering the NBA, NFL, college football and basketball, international soccer, and Formula One. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning CU Independent student publication. More about Eli Gregorski<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 10: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-713248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116426237855156232","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713248","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=713248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}