![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2273305678-e1777283882207.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
Kevin Durant (left) of the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have three days to rest and prepare for a bounce back game against the Houston Rockets<\/a> that can push L.A. into Round 2 of the Western Conference playoffs, but the kicker is that Kevin Durant<\/a> will benefit from that time off as well.<\/p>\n Rockets head coach Ime Udoka kept open the door for Durant\u2019s return to the series after he missed the past two games with a sprained ankle and bone bruise.<\/p>\n \u201cIme Udoka said there is still a possibility that Kevin Durant returns at some point this series,\u201d Will Guillory of The Athletic reported<\/a> following Houston\u2019s Game 4 victory. \u201cJust depends on how feels and if they can extend the series.\u201d<\/p>\n Ime Udoka said there is still a possibility that Kevin Durant returns at some point this series. Just depends on how he feels and if they can extend the series.<\/p>\n Those comments could indicate that Udoka doesn\u2019t expect Durant back for Game 5, as he spoke about Houston needing to \u201cextend the series\u201d in order for the superstar to return, which the team had already done once when Udoka made the statement.<\/p>\n Shams Charania of ESPN reported leading up to Game 4 that Durant would typically miss multiple weeks with the injury had he sustained it during the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s had around-the-clock treatment to play, but has not been cleared by doctors,\u201d Charania posted to X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Durant suffered the injury during Game 2 on April 21. Game 4 will take place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on April 29, eight days after the initial incident.<\/p>\n Austin Reaves Has Reasonable Chance to Return to Action for Lakers Against Rockets in Game 5 GettyAustin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n While Durant\u2019s status is up in the air, the likelihood that Lakers star Austin Reaves<\/a> can return for Game 5 is looking up.<\/p>\n Reaves has entered the lead-up to each of the past two outings as \u201cquestionable\u201d due to the Grade 2 oblique strain he suffered on April 2, but ultimately did not play in either contest.<\/p>\n \u201cI would tend to believe the Lakers are feeing better about Austin Reaves\u2019 chances of being available for Game 5 in LA on Wednesday,\u201d Brett Siegel of ClutchSports wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cHe has not had any setbacks over the last week, as the team has been comfortable easing him and not rushing him back with how this series has gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Come Game 5, which is now a relatively pivotal matchup, Reaves will be just one day shy of four weeks removed from straining his oblique against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. The Rockets staved off elimination Sunday night without Durant, and if the team can win on the road in L.A., it will head back to Houston with a chance to even the series and force a deciding Game 7.<\/p>\n Lakers Star LeBron James Should Benefit From 3 Days Rest Between Games GettyLeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n LeBron James<\/a> should also benefit significantly from the long stretch between outings, as the 41-year-old star had by far his least productive showing of the opening-round series on Sunday.<\/p>\n James scored just 10 points, adding nine assists, four rebounds and eight turnovers on 2-of-9 shooting<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started with me, obviously,\u201d James said<\/a> following the game, per ESPN, as he shouldered the blame for the team\u2019s first loss of the postseason. \u201cMy turnovers were unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMax Dible<\/a> covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Kevin Durant (left) of the Houston Rockets. The Los Angeles Lakers have three days to rest and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-413121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"When](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2207571268_d71282-e1777076003729.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272287298_2cadba-e1776850187492.jpg\")
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