{"id":638458,"date":"2026-04-29T12:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638458\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:53:11","slug":"kevin-durant-is-ruled-out-for-game-5-against-the-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638458\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant is ruled out for Game 5 against the Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kevin Durant has not played in the last three games in Houston\u2019s first-round series.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Houston\u2019s\u00a0Kevin Durant is out for Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers (10 p.m. ET, ESPN<\/a>) on Wednesday night with a left ankle sprain.<\/p>\n

Durant didn\u2019t participate in practice with the Rockets on Tuesday before they left for California,\u00a0trailing 3-1\u00a0in the first-round series. But he was seen running on an antigravity treadmill as the team wrapped up its work before heading to the airport.<\/p>\n

Coach Ime Udoka was asked if there was a possibility that Durant would play in Game 5 after missing the last two games with a sprained left ankle and bone bruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Udoka said. \u201cIt is day-to-day, game-to-game. But we\u2019ll have to get on the court and do some things, and he didn\u2019t participate in practice today. But he\u2019s doing the conditioning and other aspects to try to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant sat out the opener with a bruised right knee, as well as Games 3, 4 and 5. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of\u00a0the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.<\/p>\n

The Rockets won Game 4 115-96 despite missing their superstar to avoid elimination.<\/p>\n

Durant\u2019s injury problems this postseason came after the 37-year-old ranked second in the league in the regular season by playing 2,840 minutes.<\/p>\n

Durant, who is in his first season in Houston after an offseason trade from Phoenix, is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant has not played in the last three games in Houston\u2019s first-round series. HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Houston\u2019s\u00a0Kevin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,309133,85],"class_list":["post-638458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-kevin-durant-injury","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638458","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=638458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}