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By Cole Sullivan
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The Los Angeles Lakers are set to host the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs on Saturday night, marking another chapter in the storied careers of LeBron James and Kevin Durant as they face off once again.
It’s also fair to wonder if this could be one of the final times the two meet on a postseason stage, with James now 41 and Durant 37.
Still, both continue to play at an elite level, and on Thursday, James delivered a strong message about Durant while speaking to the media.
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“I think last time we was in Houston I told you guys how great he’s been since he picked up a basketball,” James said. “So that’s one part of it — obviously that’s the head of the snake. You know, the Houston Rockets got some damn good players on their team. So it’s not just a KD team, it’s a whole group. Obviously, like I said, KD is going to do what KD does — he’s a Hall of Famer, we know that. So we have to prepare not only for him, but the whole group.”
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All-time, James holds a 26–20 edge over Durant in head-to-head matchups, though that advantage largely comes from the regular season. In the postseason, Durant leads 9–5 and defeated James in two NBA Finals during his time with the Golden State Warriors, when James was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James, however, did get the better of Durant in the NBA Finals once, capturing the first championship of his career in his second season with the Miami Heat. That came in 2012, when Durant was still early in his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In this matchup, James will be operating shorthanded, as the Lakers are expected to be without both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for the first round due to injuries they sustained earlier in the month.
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