According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Houston Rockets are expected not to have superstar talent Kevin Durant for their Game 5 showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 37-year-old is still dealing with the ankle injury, as he has missed the past two games due to a sprained left ankle and bone bruise.

Durant has only played in one game this series – Game 2 – due to this ankle injury and a knee injury as well. Game 2, fans saw him drop 23 points, but also sprain his ankle.

Despite winning Game 4, Houston is still down 3-1 to Los Angeles. Game 5 is set for Wednesday night at 10:00PM EDT.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, there is great “optimism” that an extension will be reached between the two sides being Opening Night of the NBA.

Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant’s business manager, has been in “constant communication about a long-term contract extension” with Houston. Durant continues to voice his opinion privately and publicly about signing a new deal with the Rockets.

“I do see myself signing a contract extension,” Durant said. “I can’t tell you exactly when that will happen, but I do see it happening.”

The 37-year-old is eligible to sign a two-year deal worth over $120 million.

“I’m told there is optimism about a deal getting done before the start of the regular season,” said Charania.

Durant is currently on an expiring contract making $55 million for this upcoming season.

The newest member of the Houston Rockets opened up about finding out the Phoenix Suns no longer wanted him and how he denied a trade to the Golden State Warriors.

He has stated he was hurt by how his run in Phoenix ended, as he thought they were building something meaningful that could have resulted in great things.

“Initially, I was a little upset because I felt like we built a solid relationship, me and the Phoenix Suns,” Durant said. “And to hear that from a different party was kind of upsetting, but that’s just the name of the game. So I got over that quickly and was trying to figure out what the next steps were.”

Since the Warriors, Durant has found himself jumping from team-to-team almost every couple of seasons.

Beyond his feelings about how it ended with the Suns, it has been confirmed that he never had real intentions of returning to the Warriors. In fact, he outright blocked a trade to them.

“I heard Golden State was in the mix around the trade deadline, but that’s when (Durant’s business partner and manager) Rich (Kleiman) came into play, and those relationships that we built around the league and also playing in Golden State helped,” Durant said. “We were able to tell them to kind of hold off on that.”

“Since me being on the market in February when there’s also a trade deadline, people were just kind of seeing how their seasons played out and what they needed for their teams,” Durant said. “We knew we would revisit that right around the summertime, and Houston kind of jumped on, and it happened pretty fast from there.”

He didn’t want to reunite with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green for a second run for a championship.