Colin Cowherd sends strong message on LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant

After last night’s 101-94 win, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have jumped to a 2-0 series lead on Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.

Ahead of the first-round playoff matchup, multiple sports books listed the Rockets as favorites to win the series, despite the Lakers being the No. 4 seed with home-court advantage. That was mainly due to the absence of Los Angeles’ key starters, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

However, the Lakers haven’t needed either player, as King James has stepped up to lead the way. He finished last night’s game with 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and a steal, putting Los Angeles two wins away from advancing.

According to Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd, last night’s game also highlighted a difference between the two teams’ superstars. KD just returned from injury for Game 2 and had 23 points, six rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block. However, he also turned the ball over nine times out of his team’s 15 total turnovers.

During Wednesday’s “The Herd With Colin Cowherd,” he noted that LeBron is “now running point” without Luka and Reaves in the lineup.

“He is a force multiplier. Every Laker is playing great. Meanwhile, KD shot 58 percent from the floor and was a non-factor in the second half of the game, because KD’s a get-a-bucket guy,” Cowherd explained.

“He tends to operate in a silo,” he said of Durant, adding, “He’s not necessarily elevating teammates. Second half, he had three points and five turnovers. Is that the first time he’s been doubled or trapped? It was embarrassing.”

Durant was part of two losses in the regular season to the Lakers last month in a back-to-back. In both games, he recorded just 18 points each time and had seven turnovers in one.

One has to look back to Christmas Day when Durant had success, with 25 points, eight assists, four rebounds, two blocks, and a steal in a Rockets’ win in Los Angeles.

As mentioned, Durant returned from a troubling knee injury that kept him on the sidelines for the first game of this playoff series against the Lakers. While he wasn’t necessarily limited in Game 2, he didn’t seem to impact the game in the way LeBron did.

That said, KD and the Rockets will host Game 3 in Houston on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Perhaps the home court will get Durant fired up with his teammates to not go down 0-3 in the first round against a banged-up Lakers team led by a 41-year-old superstar.

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