The Los Angeles Lakers headed into the 2026 NBA Playoffs in turmoil.
No Luka Dončić. No Austin Reaves. Both crocked with injuries at the start of April, with the second round penciled in as the earliest that either of them returns. The onus then fell on a 41-year-old GOAT by the name of LeBron James to carry his team throughout a difficult first-round test against the Houston Rockets.
And in Round 1, he proved that he is still up to the task.
LeBron Powers Lakers Past Rockets in Round 1
The Rockets were essentially without their talisman, Kevin Durant, sidelined with a knee issue, which turned their end of the bracket into its own kind of chaos.
But amid all the absences, there was LeBron James — 41 years old, reading defenses like he was annotating a document he’d already memorized, threading passes, building leads, refusing every invite to look diminished. Nineteen points, 13 assists, eight rebounds. A complete playoff performance in a crucial 107-98 win from a man who was supposed to be, by any reasonable actuarial assessment, past all of this.
Online betting sites still think that the four-time NBA champion has his work cut out if he is to add a fifth ring to his already overflowing collection. The odds from https://www.luckyrebel.la/ at the start of the playoffs were a whopping +12500 outsider to lift the Larry O’Brien this season. Their Round 1 win has improved their odds, but they still sit at +1800 ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
Plenty of times before, injuries have derailed an entire postseason. LeBron is currently holding things together as best he can, but how long will that last? Let’s take a look at three times when the luck ran out under the bright lights.
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls — 2012
The lockout-shortened 2011-12 Bulls — 50-16, No. 1 seed in the East, a winning percentage that matched the 62-win juggernaut they’d been the year before — had built something physically formidable under Tom Thibodeau. Derrick Rose was the reigning MVP after racking up averages of 25.0 points and 7.7 assists per night to become the winner of the coveted award. When he played, Chicago went 32-7 and was the championship favorite.
Game 1 against Philadelphia, first round. Rose had 23 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. Chicago led by 12. One minute and 22 seconds remained. The game was already won — and this is the detail that should haunt every subsequent sentence, because he didn’t need to be on the floor.
The United Center was celebrating.
And then he planted his left foot at the wrong angle, crumpled into the paint, and grabbed his knee. Torn ACL.
The sound that followed wasn’t a gasp so much as a collective silence — the sound of an entire city understanding, in real time, that their challenge had just ended.
The eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers would eventually win in six, ensuring that the Bulls became the first top seed in 13 years to lose in the first round. Rose, meanwhile, would never be the same again, missing the 2012-13 season entirely before tearing the meniscus in that same knee after just ten games in 2013-14.
The championship window — built on one of the great modern defensive systems and the most electrifying young guard in basketball — slammed shut and never reopened.
Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs — 2017
The 2017 San Antonio Spurs were 61-21, the No. 2 seed in the West, and widely considered the only team capable of genuinely threatening Golden State’s dynasty.
Kawhi Leonard had evolved into something spectacular, blending elite perimeter defense with genuine, game-changing offense. Under Gregg Popovich, alongside LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker, San Antonio had dispatched Memphis and Houston through the first two rounds. The matchup everyone wanted — Spurs versus Warriors at full strength; Popovich’s chess against the most talented roster assembled in a generation — was finally here.
Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Leonard put up 26 points in just 23 minutes, and the Spurs built a 25-point lead. They were in complete, almost insulting control.
Then it unraveled. Leonard stepped awkwardly on teammate David Lee’s foot near the sideline, twisting the ankle he’d already been nursing. Moments later, rotating out of a corner three, he came down on Zaza Pachulia’s outstretched foot — the Warriors’ big man closing out with his foot planted directly in Leonard’s landing zone in a manner that the entire basketball world immediately, furiously, and not unreasonably interpreted as deliberate.
Leonard limped off and never came back. The Warriors erased that 25-point deficit and won 113-111. Leonard was ruled out for Games 3 and 4. San Antonio was swept. And Golden State duly waltzed all the way to yet another title.
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics — 2025
The Boston Celtics headed into last season’s playoffs as the defending champions — 61 wins, No. 2 seed in the East, Jayson Tatum at 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists across 72 appearances, operating at the absolute peak of his powers. Then came the second-round series against the Knicks, and a 2-1 deficit that had backed Boston against the wall.
Game 4 was Tatum’s answer: 42 points, one of the finest individual playoff performances of the entire 2025 postseason. Everything Boston needed, poured into a single night. And then, with under three minutes left, he went down on a non-contact play. No collision. No defender. Just a ruptured right Achilles tendon — one of sport’s most devastating injuries — snapping in a single, silent second. He was helped off the court after a 42-point night, underwent surgery the following morning, and his season was done. The Celtics would go on to lose that game, and despite Derrick White’s heroics in Game 5, were eliminated in six without their guy.
The Ringer didn’t hesitate: this might have ended an entire Celtics era. One non-contact moment. One Achilles. An entire championship identity potentially over. The detail that he’d just played the game of his season — in the moment he was needed most, at the peak of everything he’d built — makes what followed almost too cruel to fully absorb.
Plenty More to Choose From
The above three injuries are among the most notable, but they don’t stop there. Damian Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton in 2025. Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2024. Khris Middleton in 2022. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson in 2019. Kyrie Irving in 2015. They all derailed potential championships.
At 41 years old, LeBron James stands alone— defying Father Time for another postseason.
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