{"id":714909,"date":"2026-04-21T00:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714909\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:51:21","slug":"kevin-durant-named-game-time-decision-ahead-of-game-2-vs-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714909\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Named Game-Time Decision Ahead of Game 2 vs Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets<\/a> are down 1-0 against the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> in their first-round series, and the one player who could flip the script for the Rockets remains a question mark.<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant<\/a> has been listed as a game-time decision for Tuesday night’s Game 2, leaving the Rockets in a position no team wants to be in when down in a series.<\/p>\n

Durant injured his knee during a practice last Wednesday. He was added to the injury report with a knee contusion 24 hours before the series opener. Though he attempted a full pre-game workout on Saturday, he ultimately couldn’t play when his teammates needed him most.<\/p>\n

Head coach Ime Udoka mentioned that while they hope it’s a short-term issue, Durant didn’t feel right after testing it in practice.<\/p>\n

\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) reactsTroy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

And as expected, Houston struggled without him, and the underdog Lakers took every single advantage of his absence.<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard scored a career playoff-high 27 points. LeBron James<\/a> also recorded 19 points and 13 assists to lead the shorthanded team to the convincing 107-98 victory. They barely miss the fireworks of Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n

According to USA Today’s Ben DuBose of Rockets Wire<\/a>, there’s a “good chance” Durant returns in Game 2, with hope building that the three days of rest and rehabilitation have moved his knee in the right direction.<\/p>\n

But recently, the Athletics<\/a>‘ Will Guillory reported<\/a>, “Ime Udoka says Kevin Durant went thru about half of today’s practice. He’ll be a game-time decision tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Shams Charania also said<\/a>, “My understanding is Kevin Durant is dealing with a deep bruise in his right patellar tendon…The Rockets they’re optimistic that Kevin Durant is gonna be able to return as soon as Game 2 but it remains to be seen.”<\/p>\n

KD was an iron man during the regular season, playing 78 games while averaging 26 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists. He was highly efficient, shooting 52% from the field and 41.3% from deep.<\/p>\n

He often said he is the offense for a Rockets team that has been without starting point guard Fred VanVleet since he tore his ACL in September. Without Durant on the floor, Houston lacks a playmaker who can consistently create high-quality shots.<\/p>\n

Whether he can play through this injury is now the biggest question of the series. Meanwhile, Doncic\u2019s return to Lakers practice has created a lot of optimism in the opponent’s community.<\/p>\n

Game 2 tips off at 10:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. If Durant is in the lineup, this series will become more interesting.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers Receive Luka Doncic Update Ahead of Game 2 Against Rockets<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 20, 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":"The Houston Rockets are down 1-0 against the Los Angeles Lakers in their first-round series, and the one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1013,7,866,194,1272,938,40401,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,1171,6,26786],"class_list":{"0":"post-714909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-fred-vanvleet","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-ime-udoka","13":"tag-kevin-durant","14":"tag-knee-contusion","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-lakers","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-lalakers","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangeleslakers","24":"tag-luka-doncic","25":"tag-luke-kennard","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-rockets-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116439960455832380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714909","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=714909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}