With Kevin Durant's Game 5 Status Official, These Three Rockets Will Need to Step Up Again to Stay Alive vs. Lakers

The Rockets lived to fight another day in their first-round playoff series against the Lakers over the weekend. Houston, down 3–0 after a demoralizing and disastrous end to Game 3, rallied to win in Game 4 and earned a trip back to Los Angeles for Wednesday night's Game 5 as a reward.

The team did so without the talents of Kevin Durant; the future Hall of Fame scorer was sidelined with an ankle sprain, a new injury after he missed Game 1 with a knee injury. Despite coach Ime Udoka leaving the door open for a potential return, Tuesday brought the dreaded (but expected) news: Durant would miss Game 5, ruled out with his ankle injury over 24 hours before tip.

It's as good a sign as any that KD will not be seen on the court anytime soon. It also means Houston's fate is in the hands of its young talent. Without Durant, it will be on the young bucks to step up and keep the Rockets' season alive.

After Game 4's exciting win, it'll be on the same players who helped win that game to step up and ensure Game 5 brings the same result. Which does not include Alperen Şengün. It'd be nice to see him play somewhere near an All-Star level given he has two such selections but the Lakers pretty clearly have his number. The fifth-year center has been terrible this series outside of his 33-point Game 3 and had 19 last time out with everybody's backs against the wall.

Here are the players who will have to save Houston again in Game 5 after doing so in Game 4.

Tari Eason

Eason is one of the Rockets' most important two-way players as a strong wing defender who hit 35% of his threes over the course of this past season. But he hit the postseason in the middle of a putrid shooting stretch; after the All-Star break Eason was a 21.8% shooter from beyond the arc. His struggles continued into the early games of this series, as Eason shot 30% from deep over the first three games.

In Game 4 he hit a pair of threes on five attempts, which doesn't exactly make him Curry. But it was a big step forward given Eason had hit the 40% mark from beyond the arc only five times since the beginning of March. But it clearly boosted his confidence as the fourth-year forward out of LSU finished with 20 points while going 7-for-9 from the floor. He led Houston starters with a +31 and recorded a whopping five steals.

Eason was a playmaker on both ends and the Rockets desperately need all the two-way play they can get. If he can keep the L.A. defense honest while causing chaos on the other end, Eason will have done his job.

Reed Sheppard

Despite Udoka's presumably overwhelming urge to bench Sheppard until the end of time following his Game 3 blunder, the young shooting guard bounced back in Game 4. He didn't light up the scoreboard in finishing with 17 points but he made 50% of his shots, including 4-of-7 from three. It was a big performance for the 21-year-old considering his role in the last game's collapse, an injection of confidence much-needed for a shooter who is capable of raining fire from deep-even if we haven't seen it yet.

It's key for Sheppard to keep firing, too. Houston has literally nobody else who is respected by the Lakers' defense as a shooter. They aren't sticking to him like glue but they won't completely abandon him, either. The space he provides as a result helps avoid stretches of gummed-up offense. Or, at least, mitigates the damage those stretches can do with a timely shot here and there. As the best pure shooter in the rotation outside of KD, there is no overstating Sheppard's importance to the Rockets' hopes of surviving another day.

Amen Thompson

While the two above names played well, Thompson played great. He showed off his incredible athleticism in cutting through L.A.'s defense like a hot knife through butter and paced Houston with 23 points on the night. He was aggressive on both ends and ran the offense well, racking up seven assists while he put pressure on the rim all night long. Thompson finished with 10 field goals made on the night, his 17th game of the year with double-digit makes from the field, and trailed only Jabari Smith Jr. with 40 minutes played.

Thompson is this team's x-factor in so many ways. Sheppard and Eason are good players who can have great games but have a ceiling on just how much they can dominate. Thompson, even as a total non-shooter, is a special enough athlete to believe that ceiling doesn't exist. If he can find a groove early on in Game 5 and ensure the Lakers can't wield his lack of shooting against his teammates, Thompson will have done his job. If he can do more than that and put forth another well-rounded effort and make himself a real problem for Los Angeles, the Rockets have hope.

A dangerous thing, we know. But this Lakers team isn't so dominant Houston has no shot in Game 5, no matter how ugly it's been so far. If the above trio can make some noise, anything can happen.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as With Kevin Durant's Game 5 Status Official, These Three Rockets Will Need to Step Up Again to Stay Alive vs. Lakers.

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This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 8:05 PM.