Houston Rockets All-Star Kevin Durant is expected to miss Sunday’s Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers with a bone bruise in his sprained left ankle, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.
If confirmed, Durant will miss his third game of the series. He missed Game 1 with a knee injury, then missed Game 3 with his sprained ankle.
Per the report, the bone bruise is an injury that would typically sideline a player 2-3 weeks during the regular season, putting Durant’s availability in question moving forward if the Rockets manage to extend the series Sunday night. The Lakers have a 3-0 series lead and can close it out with a win in Game 4.
The Rockets have struggled with and without Durant on the floor during this series and are now faced with becoming the first NBA team to ever rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a series or face elimination in the first round. Playing without Durant in Game 4, obviously, makes their task that much tougher.
Durant scored 20 points in the first half of Game 2. But the Lakers limited him to three points after halftime en route to a 101-94 win. The Rockets then blew a six-point lead in the final 30 seconds of Game 3 before going on to lose in overtime Friday night.
The Lakers have built their 3-0 lead despite playing without their top two scorers, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. LeBron James has led the Lakers’ effort while Los Angeles’ role players have stepped up in Reaves’ and Dončić’s absence.
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