![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272502473-scaled-e1777071570635-1024x658.jpg\")
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Kevin Durant missed just one game in the regular season. He’s now missed two games in the playoffs. Ronald Martinez \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
April 24, 2026Updated 7:18 pm EDT<\/p>\n
Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has been ruled out for Game 3 of Houston\u2019s first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers with a left ankle sprain, marking the second game he\u2019s missed in this season\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n
Durant missed Game 1 of the series with a right knee contusion, which he suffered during a practice leading up to the playoffs. He suffered this most recent ankle injury during the second half of Houston\u2019s 101-94 loss to the Lakers in Tuesday\u2019s Game 2.<\/p>\n
His absence is potentially disastrous for a Rockets team that already trails 0-2 in the series after two horrid offensive performances in Los Angeles against a Lakers team missing Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves due to injury. Now, the Rockets will look to avoid falling in a 0-3 hole, which no team in NBA history has overcome to win a seven-game series, without the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.<\/p>\n
Durant\u2019s injury luck comes as an even bigger surprise considering his first season in Houston was one of the healthiest of his entire career. He only missed one game during the regular season due to injury while logging the second-most minutes played in the NBA, trailing only his Rockets teammate, Amen Thompson.<\/p>\n
With Durant sidelined, Rockets coach Ime Udoka said he plans to roll with a starting unit of Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn. It\u2019ll be the second-youngest lineup to ever start a playoff game, with Eason being the oldest among the group at 24 years old.<\/p>\n
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Apr 24, 2026<\/p>\n
Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n
Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant missed just one game in the regular season. He’s now missed two games in the playoffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,194,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston-rockets","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-lakers","12":"tag-lakers","13":"tag-lalakers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116462279430310461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717311","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=717311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}