{"id":717390,"date":"2026-04-25T01:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717390\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T01:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:48:43","slug":"kevin-durant-out-for-game-3-vs-lakers-with-injury-latest-updates-on-rockets-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717390\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Out for Game 3 vs. Lakers with Injury, Latest Updates on Rockets Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has been ruled out of Game 3 of his team&#8217;s first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers due to an ankle injury, per ESPN&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2047806108715110462\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Shams Charania<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rockets coach Ime Udoka explained when the injury occured:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Durant entered the postseason with a knee injury that caused him to miss the Game 1 loss to the Lakers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">ESPN&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48517626\/rockets-list-kevin-durant-questionable-game-1-vs-lakers-right-knee-contusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Tim MacMahon<\/a> reported Durant suffered the injury in practice leading up to Saturday&#8217;s playoff opener, but the Rockets were optimistic that he would be able to play. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">He ended up returning for Game 2, but the Rockets couldn&#8217;t even the series and now trail 2-0. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Rockets have had a fascinating season in which they won 52 games and earned the No. 5 seed in the West. However, they had notable struggles in clutch time and were <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/clutch-traditional?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=W_PCT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">below-average<\/a> in games decided by five points or fewer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Any injury to Durant makes the Rockets&#8217; chances of competing for a title significantly lower. He led the team in scoring average (26.0 points per game) and three-point percentage (41.3) during the regular season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Rockets head coach Ime Udoka will put more of an onus on Amen Thompson and Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn\u00a0to carry the offense. Reed Sheppard&#8217;s shooting prowess will also come in handy if Durant is limited for an extended period. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has been ruled out of Game 3 of his team&#8217;s first-round series against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717391,"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-717390","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\/116462833053613384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717390","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=717390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}