LOS ANGELES — Less than 90 minutes before the Rockets faced the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs on Saturday, star forward Kevin Durant was ruled out due to a knee injury suffered earlier in the week at practice. Despite Durant going through what appeared to be his normal pre-game routine on the court inside Crypto.com Arena, he couldn’t go.
While that development might’ve been surprising on the outside, the Rockets had prepared for the possibility that Durant wouldn’t play in Game 1 after suffering a knee contusion in practice a few days ago. Without Durant, who averaged 26 points per game during the regular season, Houston looked like a shell of itself during a 107-98 loss to a Lakers team without Luka Dončić and Austin Reeves.
“I don’t think it was a surprise to us,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We knew he got banged up. We looked at a bunch of different things without him. If he could go, he could go, but it looked doubtful based on how he was moving the last few days. We prepped for different lineups without him, alternative starting lineups if he wasn’t available. Late to everybody publicly, but we knew it might be a good chance he was out.”
Inside the Rockets’ locker room, players also prepared for Durant’s absence — something that hasn’t been the norm this season. Durant missed just four games in the regular season, and only one of those absences was because of an injury.
Durant was held out alongside the rest of the starters in the regular season finale against Memphis last week. This was just his fifth missed game in a Rockets uniform. It came at the worst possible time.
“It’s not like him to be not working out and not on the court and not going through his stuff,” Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. told CBS Sports. “So we all had the possibility (that he wouldn’t play) after he didn’t practice the next day. We had the possibility, but we didn’t know nothing. It was kind of a day-by-day thing. We all knew whether he was playing or not; we needed to take care of business.”
The irony of Durant’s postseason debut with the Rockets being delayed is that the 2025-26 campaign marked the most minutes he has logged in the regular season in 12 years. The 2,840 minutes Durant played ranked only behind teammate Amen Thompson for the most in the NBA.
The extended minutes Durant would’ve played against the Lakers, if he were healthy, were certainly missed.
Has the series already flipped?
The Rockets came into this series as heavy favorites (-575) to advance to the second round, mostly because Los Angeles is down two of its three stars in Dončić (hamstring) and Reaves (oblique). Neither player has a timeline to return, so Houston may have a game to spare in a best-of-seven series, but if either returns before the series concludes, the calculus quickly changes.
The first impression was probably demoralizing for Houston. The Lakers led by as many as 16 points and didn’t trail for the final 20 minutes of regulation. Without Durant in the lineup, the Rockets couldn’t generate efficient looks despite shooting 27 more field goal attempts than the Lakers.
Houston finished 35 of 93 (37.6%) from the floor. Tari Eason (7 of 7) was the only Rockets player who shot more than five times who also finished above 50% from the floor. Thompson (7 of 18), Smith (5 of 14), Reed Sheppard (6 of 20), and Alperen Şengün (6 of 19) all had rough shooting nights.
Without Durant, Houston’s offense looked like this:
| Player | PTS | FG | 3PT | REB | AST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amen Thompson | 17 | 7-18 | 0-1 | 7 | 7 |
| Reed Sheppard | 17 | 6-20 | 5-14 | 1 | 8 |
| Alperen Şengün | 19 | 6-19 | 0-2 | 8 | 6 |
| Jabari Smith Jr. | 16 | 5-14 | 3-9 | 12 | 0 |
| Tari Eason | 16 | 7-7 | 2-2 | 10 | 2 |
“You miss it,” Smith said on not having Durant in the lineup. “We still got open looks. We still got what we wanted. … When you’re missing Kevin Durant, you’re going to miss a lot. We missed him, but we still could have been a lot better.”
Before the game, Udoka said that he hoped Durant’s absence was just a “one-game thing.” Game 2 is Tuesday. If Durant can’t go, the Lakers will go from underdogs in the series to the favorites overnight.
The Rockets swung big to land Durant in a historic seven-team trade last offseason after a Game 7 loss to the Warriors exposed Houston as an exciting-but-inexperienced team who needed a veteran offensive presence in crunch time. Without Durant on Saturday night, 2026 looked an awful lot like 2025. They were deers in the headlights, and against a team led by the most experienced postseason player in NBA history, no less: the age-defying LeBron James.
“There are some things we left on the table,” Udoka said. “We didn’t do as well as we could have. Opportunities missed. … At the same time, it felt like we weren’t at our best. I don’t know if it’s a deer-in-the-headlights type thing. We have some young guys out there. They have been out there, not their first time. When you struggle across the board like that, I think some nerves might’ve been there a little bit.”
Tuesday night will arrive quickly for the 37-year-old Durant. He is on the clock for a team that desperately needs him.
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