When will Kevin Durant return? Latest updates on Rockets star's playoff status vs. Lakers originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
A specter hung over Crpyto.com Arena during Game 1 of the Lakers and Rockets' first-round series on Saturday night.
Los Angeles was already dealing with injury woes, seeing Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) knocked out of the contest. Houston added to the misery in the hours leading up to tipoff as Kevin Durant would be ruled out with a right knee contusion.
Durant's injury loomed larger than any other during Saturday's game as the Rockets struggled to cope with his absence, seeing their shots miss their target with increasing regularity. The Lakers took advantage, surging to a 107-98 win.
With that, here's the latest on Durant's injury, including a potential timeline for his return.
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Durant sustained a right knee bruise during a practice before Game 1. He was deemed day-to-day with the ailment, with head coach Ime Udoka telling reporters that the Durant hit the knee "in an awkward spot" above the patella tendon.
The injury is not believed to be severe. Durant bruised his knee on Wednesday, three days before the Rockets and Lakers met in their series opener. He was added to the injury report on Friday and was ruled out less than two hours before tipoff. Fox Sports 1's Rachel Nichols reported that Durant tried to return to the floor in the hours before the contest, only to be set back.
Durant underwent imaging to assess the nature of his injury. According to Udoka, the scan yielded "nothing major."
“Hopefully it’s a one game thing, but he tried it out in practice and it didn’t feel good enough,” Udoka said, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
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Udoka expressed hope that Durant would only face a one-game absence as a result of his malady. According to Houston's coach, part of the trouble with Durant's injury is that it limits the range of motion in his knee.
"It's very tender, tough to bend certain ways," Udoka said. "If he had a regular bumped knee, I think he could kind of play through that. But right above the knee, the patellar tendon area, up there, it's just very tender and sore.
"Pain tolerance is one thing, but actually limited movement is more the cause [of Durant's absence.]"
The Rockets would certainly benefit from Durant's return. Their offense sputtered without its anchor, with Alperen Sengun, Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson combining for 53 points on 19-of-57 shooting.
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As of Monday morning, it's unknown if Durant will play against the Lakers on Tuesday night. He has often showed a willingness to fight through the pain barrier to take part in fixtures, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick.
There's the question of movement -- Udoka cited limited motion as the primary cause of Durant's absence. Still, with no structural damage to his knee and Houston's offensive toils sans him, it's certainly possible that Durant will drape a Rockets kit on for Game 2.
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