{"id":260849,"date":"2026-04-22T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260849\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T08:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T08:00:20","slug":"kevin-durant-rejoins-houstons-starting-lineup-for-game-2-at-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260849\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant rejoins Houston\u2019s starting lineup for Game 2 at Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 21, 2026, 8:15 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

As expected<\/a>, All-Star forward Kevin Durant (right knee contusion) rejoined the Rockets in Game 2 (box score<\/a>) of Houston\u2019s first-round playoff series versus the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n

Durant missed Saturday\u2019s Game 1 in Los Angeles, which played a large role<\/a> in Houston losing the opening game of its best-of-seven series. Thus, the Rockets are hoping that Durant\u2019s return will allow them to tie the series on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Tipoff is at 9:30 p.m. Central, and the game is being televised and streamed nationally on NBC and Peacock. Durant started for the Rockets alongside Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., and Josh Okogie.<\/p>\n

In his pregame media session before Game 2, head coach Ime Udoka said Durant was testing out his knee at that time. He added that if Durant was cleared to play, there would not be a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, after Durant\u2019s pregame on-court workout concluded, Shams Charania \u2014 ESPN\u2019s top NBA insider \u2014 reported that Durant was cleared to play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Durant led Houston (52-30, No. 5 in Western Conference) in scoring this season, averaging 26.0 points (52.0% FG, 41.3% on 3-pointers), 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 36.4 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

After missing only one game due to injury in the 2025-26 regular season, Durant bruised his knee when colliding with a teammate during last Wednesday\u2019s practice \u2014 the first of postseason play for the Rockets.<\/p>\n

It was undoubtedly awful timing, but both Durant and the team are hopeful that his one-game playoff absence will be the last. The NBA spreads out the first two weeks of its postseason for television purposes, so the 37-year-old was able to get almost a week\u2019s worth of rest and rehabilitation while only missing one game.<\/p>\n

Game 3 is Friday night in Houston, which will give Durant another two off days (after Game 2) to allow for further healing before the series resumes.<\/p>\n

More: Reports: Rockets optimistic for Kevin Durant return in Game 2 at Lakers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 21, 2026, 8:15 p.m. CT As expected, All-Star forward Kevin Durant (right knee contusion) rejoined the Rockets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,9261,9262,6326,2518,15751,18090,1593,2579,42,46,216,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-260849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-sstssportsnbarockets","13":"tag-sstsnrockets","14":"tag-tagbasketball","15":"tag-taghouston","16":"tag-tagime-udoka","17":"tag-taglos-angeles","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnba","20":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","21":"tag-tagsports-news","22":"tag-tx","23":"tag-typestory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}