{"id":274774,"date":"2026-04-18T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/274774\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:56:11","slug":"houston-rockets-vs-los-angeles-lakers-stream-lineups-injury-reports-broadcast-4-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/274774\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers: Stream, lineups, injury reports, broadcast (4\/18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets<\/a> will kick off their playoff odyssey with a road matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Saturday night, and they’ll look to set the tone for their first-round series with a Game 1 victory.<\/p>\n

A key to victory for the Rockets is to keep star forward LeBron James<\/a> in check \u2014 if they can achieve that, they should be in good shape. With Austin Reaves<\/a> and Luka Doncic<\/a> sidelined, folks should expect James to be extra aggressive in looking for his own shot.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Records, standing, and streaks\"Mar<\/p>\n

Mar 5, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) greets Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) on the court after the game at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

At present, the Rockets come into this series with the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, and the Lakers hold the No. 4 seed.<\/p>\n

As this is Game 1, the series is currently tied 0-0.<\/p>\n

What happened in the last game for each team?\"Mar<\/p>\n

Mar 5, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) reacts after scoring a basket during the fourth quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Houston beat the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> (132-101) at home.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles<\/a> beat the Utah Jazz<\/a> (131-107) at home.<\/p>\n

Injuries\"Nov<\/p>\n

Nov 12, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) and Houston Rockets forward Jeff Green (32) on the bench against the Washington Wizards during the second quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

For Los Angeles, Luka Doncic (left hamstring strain) is out and Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) is out.<\/p>\n

For Houston, Fred VanVleet<\/a> (ACL repair) is out, Steven Adams<\/a> (left ankle surgery) is out and Kevin Durant<\/a> (right knee contusion) is questionable.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Probable starting lineups – Houston\"Mar<\/p>\n

Mar 18, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) dribbles against Houston Rockets guard Amen Thompson (1) and forward Kevin Durant (7) in the first quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Probable starting lineups – Los Angeles\"Apr<\/p>\n

Apr 7, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) celebrates a shot by guard Amen Thompson (center) against the Phoenix Suns in the second half at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Here’s when you should tune in to see the game:<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets vs. Lakers: Stream, lineups, injury reports and more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Rockets will kick off their playoff odyssey with a road matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[56619,66691,19538,20294,66689,7006,66692,66694,6468,48,52,51,13505,47,50,2497,49,7551,29125,1420,7016,20293,66693,15965],"class_list":{"0":"post-274774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-austin-reaves","11":"tag-deandre-ayton","12":"tag-fred-vanvleet","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","15":"tag-josh-okogie","16":"tag-kevin-durant","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-lebron-james","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","24":"tag-los-angeles-news","25":"tag-luka-doncic","26":"tag-luke-kennard","27":"tag-marcus-smart","28":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","29":"tag-rui-hachimura","30":"tag-steven-adams","31":"tag-utah-jazz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}