![\"Lakers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2208655889-e1777088783204.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Lakers could play the Thunder in the next round of the NBA playoffs. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are one win away from advancing to the next round of the NBA playoffs. While the Lakers players cannot overlook the Houston Rockets<\/a>, fans are already anticipating who Los Angeles would face if the team is able to advance to the second round. <\/p>\n With the Lakers up 3-0 on the Rockets, one more win would punch Los Angeles\u2019 ticket to the next round. The Lakers would then face the winner of the No. 1-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> and No. 8 Phoenix Suns<\/a>. Oklahoma City holds a 2-0 lead on Phoenix heading into Game 3. <\/p>\n Los Angeles\u2019 second round playoff schedule would depend on when each series ends. It is estimated that the next round of the NBA<\/a> playoffs will begin between May 2-4, 2026. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you need to know about the Lakers\u2019 upcoming playoff schedule.<\/p>\n Lakers vs. Rockets Schedule: Game 4 Is Slated for Sunday, April 26<\/p>\n For now, the Lakers are focused on Game 4 against the Rockets on Sunday, April 26, at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC. If the Rockets win and force a Game 5, the two teams would square off on Wednesday, April 29. <\/p>\n Additionally, Game 6 is scheduled for Friday, May 1 and Game 7 is slated for Sunday, May 3, if necessary. LeBron James<\/a> and company are hoping that the team will be getting some much-needed rest instead of playing in these scheduled matchups.<\/p>\n \nWill Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves Play for the Lakers in the Next Round of the NBA Playoffs?<\/p>\n The Lakers are cruising agains the Rockets despite being without two star players in Luka Doncic<\/a> and Austin Reaves. Los Angeles has been quiet about the potential return timelines for both players. <\/p>\n Instead, Doncic and Reaves have been described as \u201cout indefinitely.\u201d It does seem that Reaves is closer to suiting up than Doncic. <\/p>\n Reaves was listed as questionable for Game 3 but did not suit up. Doncic does not appear to be as close to playing as Reaves, but this could change in the conference semifinals. <\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJonathan Adams<\/a> is a veteran sports contributor covering the NFL, NBA and golf for Heavy.com. His work has been prominently featured on NFL.com, Yahoo Sports, Pro Football Talk, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and Sports Illustrated. More about Jonathan Adams<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Lakers could play the Thunder in the next round of the NBA playoffs. The Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717467,"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-717466","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\/116463352900384728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717466","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=717466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}