Kevin Durant, LeBron James meet in playoffs for 4th time when Rockets visit short-handed Lakers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James and Kevin Durant first faced each other in the playoffs way back in 2012, when the Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to win James' first NBA championship. The superstars met again in 2017 and 2018, and Durant's Golden State Warriors beat James' Cleveland Cavaliers to win Durant's two rings. The two greatest scorers of this generation are matched up once again in the postseason this weekend when Durant and his Houston Rockets visit James' Los Angeles Lakers. Game 1 is Saturday night in the latest chapter of this friendly rivalry, and the basketball world will be watching. “It’s prime time,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Two of the best, and still doing it at this stage in their careers. And they have had some battles in the playoffs, but not a ton being in the East and the West a lot. So that part alone has a lot of storylines, a lot of history. I’m sure this will add to their chapters.” The 41-year-old James is the top scorer in NBA history, and the 37-year-old Durant is fifth. While this fourth engagement might turn out to be their final spring meeting — and maybe even James' final playoff appearance, who knows? — they're both thinking mostly about the task before them, not the history behind them. “It’s always great playing against great players,” Durant said. “You feel their presence on the floor, even if you’re not matched up with them. But it’s just like all basketball players know, it’s much more than just one player. You need a whole group of guys to go out there and win ... but yeah, the matchup is definitely fun. Two great players who’ve been in the league for a long time. But everybody who’s involved in this series knows it’s much deeper than that.” Indeed, their shared playoff history only underlines the importance of a supporting cast, even for players of their stature. James' Heatles were too much for a young Thunder group led by Durant, and . The Warriors then became arguably the most loaded team in recent NBA history when Durant chose to join , and it was too much even for James, who moved to the Lakers a few weeks after his Cavs fell to Golden State for the third time in four years. The importance of a supporting cast is the reason fifth-seeded Houston is the prohibitive favorite in this series, of course. The Lakers lost NBA scoring champion and prolific guard to injuries two weeks ago, and . So while James is once again to places it would never otherwise go, the hard-working Rockets are healthier around Durant, who wants his first postseason with Houston to be memorable. “Obviously, we know that’s the head of the snake,” James said of Durant. “But it’s the Houston Rockets, and they have some damn good players on their team. It’s not just a KD team. It’s the whole group. Like I said, KD is gonna do what KD does. He’s a Hall of Famer. We know that. So we have to prepare not only for him, but for the whole group.”