{"id":633909,"date":"2026-04-27T11:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633909\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T11:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:01:15","slug":"kevin-durant-out-for-game-4-vs-lakers-latest-injury-updates-and-timeline-for-rockets-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633909\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Out for Game 4 vs. Lakers, Latest Injury Updates and Timeline for Rockets Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The late-season injury woes continue for Kevin Durant as the Houston Rockets look for any signs of light in their playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">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\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2048483772157382780\">Shams Charania<\/a>, the future Hall of Famer will miss Sunday&#8217;s Game 4 with a bone bruise in an ankle that is also sprained. Charania noted the injury &#8220;would sideline him two to three weeks&#8221; during the regular season, and he will not be available despite &#8220;around-the-clock treatment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Durant missed two of the first three games for the Rockets in their first-round series against the Lakers. He sat out Game 1 due to a bruised right knee suffered in practice on April 16. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The two-time NBA Finals MVP returned for Game 2 and looked great early. He scored 20 points in the first half before slowing down after the break with just three points on 1-of-5 shooting in 22 minutes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">It was a surprise prior to Game 3 on Friday when Durant was initially listed on the injury report with a sprained ankle, then ruled out prior to tipoff. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While he wasn&#8217;t on the bench for Game 3, he was there with his teammates on Sunday:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Head coach Ime Udoka <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\/news\/rockets-kevin-durant-out-for-game-3-vs-lakers-with-a-sprained-left-ankle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">told reporters<\/a> during his pregame press conference the coaching staff determined Durant injured his ankle on a play midway through the fourth quarter when he was chasing down Luke Kennard. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen the play and found out when it happened. Just played the remainder of the game and obviously adrenaline and was still loose,&#8221; Udoka said. &#8220;But afterwards swelled up, some tenderness and got worse over the next day or so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Rockets are on the brink of elimination after dropping the first three games against the Lakers, including blowing a six-point lead with 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Game 3 on Friday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Durant is easily Houston&#8217;s best scoring option, so not having him puts even more pressure on Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn, Amen Thompson and Reed Thompson to step up if the Rockets are going to keep the series going. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The late-season injury woes continue for Kevin Durant as the Houston Rockets look for any signs of light&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-633909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}