The Rockets have come away with a resilient 115-96 win tonight in Game 4 to keep their hopes alive in the first-round series against the Lakers, and avoid a sweep altogether. Players tend to be humble in a situation where their team is fighting for their lives in the playoffs, and they are on the sidelines, but not Kevin Durant.
Near the midway point of the third quarter, Deandre Ayton elbowed Alperen Sengun in the head and was assessed a flagrant 2 for unnecessary and excessive contact to Sengun’s head. Consequently, he was ejected from the game.
Deandre Ayton has just been EJECTED for an “unnecessary and excessive” elbow to Alperen Sengun’s chin 👀
Good or bad call? 🤔pic.twitter.com/gg6zTFWMEe
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 27, 2026
The live broadcast caught Kevin Durant waving at Ayton on the sidelines, as though he were sending him home. This did not sit well with the Lakers’ fans, who tore into the 37-year-old veteran on social media.
Kevin Durant waves goodbye to Deandre Ayton after Ayton’s ejection.pic.twitter.com/tfBQdjIyC1
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) April 27, 2026
The Lakers’ fans flooded social media with their criticism, considering that Durant has been sidelined due to a bone bruise in his left ankle, and yet his team was winning tonight without him on the court.
“Can’t wait to use this video on Wednesday 😂😂😂😂🚬”
“Waving bye down 3-0 and abandoning your team is sad work, KD.”
“This video is not going to age well once they lose the series 😭”
“Lakers gon be using tf outta this after game 5 lmao.”
“Don’t worry, b—h, we’ll be the ones waving when we kill y’all in game 5.”
“Rockets play better with that ball stopper off the floor.”
Durant has not played in three out of the four games played in this series due to several injuries. While there is no substance to the claims that Durant is intentionally sitting out because he has quit on this team, his actions have certainly put more pressure on the young team now.
The only way this wave brings solid good news for the Rockets is if Kevin Durant is coming back in the next game. But clearly, this was trash-talk directed towards his former teammate from the Suns, Deandre Ayton.
At a point where the team is taking it one game at a time, if anything, this gesture should symbolize his confidence in his teammates to bounce back, which should shut down the media narrative that he does not care about this team.
A player, who at age 37 missed only four games in the entire regular season while averaging elite numbers, cannot be questioned about his love for basketball. And his confidence in the team to come back from a position that no team has ever had in the history of the league shows he has faith in the talent on this franchise.
Hence, while the Lakers fans might think that Durant’s confidence is unsubstantiated, there is a silver lining for the Rockets that Durant feels anything is possible from this point, even if no team has ever done it before.
The Rockets are now headed to Los Angeles for Game 5 of this series on Wednesday, April 29. If they win that game and force a Game 6 in Houston, we may see a fifth team in the league’s history to ever force a Game 7 after being down 0-3 in a series. The Rockets’ win tonight has certainly made this series even more exciting when it was on the verge of being a sweep.
