Rockets Lakers Basketball

Kevin Durant was ruled out of Houston’s playoff opener against the Los Angeles Lakers with a bruised right knee about 90 minutes before tipoff. The rest of the Rockets were neither ready nor able to pick up the slack. Houston is in an early postseason hole and the Lakers are feeling awfully good about their upset chances after Los Angeles’ 107-98 victory. Both teams were without their top scorer, but only the Lakers responded to the challenge. With Durant, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves — a combined 82.8 points per game — all watching in street clothes, Los Angeles controlled Game 1.

Austin Reaves has been upgraded to questionable for Game 3 of the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets. The Lakers made the designation on their high-scoring guard Thursday while the team flew to Houston. Los Angeles has a surprising 2-0 series lead heading into Game 3 despite playing without Luka Doncic and Reaves, its top two scorers. Reaves hasn’t played for the Lakers since he strained his oblique muscles and Doncic strained his hamstrings in a game at Oklahoma City on April 2, but he returned to on-court basketball activities over the past few days.