{"id":717334,"date":"2026-04-25T00:06:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717334\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T00:06:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:06:28","slug":"rockets-make-historic-game-3-lineup-vs-lakers-with-kevin-durant-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717334\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets make historic Game 3 lineup vs. Lakers with Kevin Durant out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Kevin Durant out for Game 3, the Rockets will rely on Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun \u2014 the second-youngest starting lineup in NBA playoff history.<\/p>\n<p>The Houston Rockets will have all their hands on deck against the Los Angeles Lakers for Game 3 of their first-round NBA Playoff series.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/6138-kevin-durant.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin  Durant<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/leagues\/59-nba.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-126312-any150x150.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Kevin  Durant\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/players\/6138-kevin-durant.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-396117-crop100x150.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Kevin  Durant\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tMIN:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t36.47<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tPTS:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t25.94 (61.14%)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tREB:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t5.46<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tAS:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t4.76<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tST:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t0.81<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tBL:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t0.91<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tTO:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3.23<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGM:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t79<\/p>\n<p>As announced, <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/news-245873-final-kevin-durant-game-4-status-for-game-4-vs-lakers-announced.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Durant will not be joining<\/a> the team for Friday&#8217;s game due to a left ankle sprain. The superstar forward, who missed the series&#8217; opening match with a right knee bone bruise, sustained the ankle injury in Houston&#8217;s past Game 2 loss on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>With Durant out, the Rockets have made a significant lineup adjustment in going up against the Lakers, starting Reed Sheppard to join Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2047807345879662624?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Shams Charania of ESPN<\/a>, this would be the second-youngest starting five in any game of the NBA Playoffs, with an average age of 22.6 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>All have been drafted and landed by Houston throughout the past couple of NBA Drafts.<\/p>\n<p>The late great Bill Walton and his title-winning 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers team still holds the record for the youngest playoff lineup in the modern era.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the Rockets can only hope that their youthful core can pull off and take the must-win Game 3 against the Lakers to keep their season alive.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/basketnews.com\/plus?utm_source=basketnews_com&amp;utm_medium=bn_plus&amp;utm_id=UA-259273-31&amp;utm_campaign=banners_free_content_for_not_members_bottom_6\" class=\"banners_paid_content_info_block_white banners-paid-content-info-block-white\" data-google-interstitial=\"false\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bn-plus-img img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bn-plus.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                            Thank you for reading us! 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It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Kevin Durant out for Game 3, the Rockets will rely on Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson, Tari Eason,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717334","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-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116462432823663988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717334","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=717334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}