{"id":606281,"date":"2026-04-25T21:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:09:15","slug":"kevin-durant-improving-but-status-for-game-4-is-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/606281\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant improving but status for Game 4 is unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rockets star Kevin Durant has appeared in only 1 game so far in the team\u2019s first-round series.<\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2014 Rockets coach Ime Udoka said Saturday that injured star Kevin Durant was doing better but his status for Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night (9:30 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock<\/a>) was still unclear with the Rockets facing elimination.<\/p>\n

Durant missed Game 3 with a sprained left ankle on Friday night, when the Rockets blew a six-point lead with less than 30 seconds to go in regulation of an eventual 112-108 overtime loss to fall to 0-3 in the first-round series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s getting treatment still around the clock,\u201d Udoka said. \u201cI think there\u2019s some soreness and (he\u2019s) pushed a lot of swelling out, but it\u2019ll be a matter of if he can go. We\u2019ll try it out I\u2019m sure tomorrow morning and before the game, and we\u2019ll know his status then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Udoka was asked how likely he believes it is that Durant will play Sunday as the Rockets try to avoid being swept in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day that goes by, the likelihood goes up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I thought he might be OK (Friday) based on shootaround and that\u2019s different going half speed and then ramping it up right before a game. And so you really can\u2019t tell, but he\u2019s doing everything he can to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durant missed the opener of the series because of a bruised right knee. He returned for Game 2, scoring 23 points in 41 minutes of the 101-94 loss, during which he injured his ankle late in the game.<\/p>\n

His 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":"Rockets star Kevin Durant has appeared in only 1 game so far in the team\u2019s first-round series. HOUSTON…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[263560,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-606281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-kevin-durant-game-4-status","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}