With a left ankle sprain and bone bruising, All-Star forward Kevin Durant will miss his third straight playoff game when the Rockets visit the Lakers on Wednesday night. He is listed on Houston’s injury report as out.
Houston trails the best-of-seven, first-round playoff series by a 3-1 margin. Los Angeles could advance to the second round with a Game 5 victory, while the Rockets are hoping to force a Game 6 on Friday night.
With Durant unavailable, the Rockets will likely stick with their “young core” starting lineup of Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr., and Alperen Sengun, which won them Sunday’s Game 4.
The Rockets have not ruled Durant out for the remainder of the series, but Wednesday’s Game 5 was probably a bit too early for a potential return. The original injury occurred a week ago on Tuesday, April 21, and ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that it would normally require a two-to-three-week recovery period in the regular season.
While that timeline could perhaps be expedited some in the playoffs, bringing it down to eight days is likely unrealistic. Friday’s potential Game 6 and Sunday’s hypothetical Game 7 would be 10 and 12 days after the original injury date, respectively, and that would be much closer to the short end (14 days) of the timetable laid out by Charania.
At Tuesday’s team practice in Houston, Durant worked off to the side on an anti-gravity treadmill, which allows him to maintain conditioning while still limiting the pressure applied to his injured ankle.
Head coach Ime Udoka said Tuesday that Durant will need to go through at least some on-court activities to return, and that has yet to occur since the injury.
So, if the Rockets can again stave off elimination in Durant’s absence, they can revisit his situation prior to Friday’s Game 6 at home.
It remains to be seen whether Durant will travel to Los Angeles for Game 5. He could stay behind to work at team facilities in Houston and minimize air travel, or perhaps he’ll want to be on the bench to support his teammates (as was the case in Game 4 but not for Game 3).
Factoring in Game 5, Durant will have missed four of Houston’s five playoff games. (He also missed Game 1 due to an unrelated right knee bruise.)
In the regular season, Durant missed the same amount of games (four) out of 82 — and three of the four were for non-injury reasons. To say the least, it’s brutal timing for a team that hasn’t had much injury luck all season long.
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Kevin Durant ruled out as Rockets face Lakers in must-win Game 5
Reporting by Ben DuBose, Rockets Wire / Rockets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
