Luke Kennard Did What No Lakers Player Has Done in Nearly 30 Years
The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2026 NBA Playoffs without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, both sidelined since early April. Somebody had to step up on the biggest stage. Nobody expected it to be Luke Kennard.
Kennard finished Game 1 against the Houston Rockets with a career playoff-high 27 points, shooting 9-for-13 from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 from three. A reliable role player for most of the season, nobody saw this coming.
But by the time the final buzzer sounded, everyone in that building knew his name.
Luke Kennard Joined a Very Short List in Lakers Playoff History
The Lakers won 107-98 to grab a 1-0 series lead, but that was not the whole story.
As LakersNation's Matthew Moreno noted, "Kennard became the first Lakers player to make five 3-pointers without a miss in a playoff game since Robert Horry in 1997."
Something that had not happened in this franchise's playoff history since the 1990s, and Kennard did it as a trade deadline pickup.
Horry's moment came in Game 2 of the 1997 Western Conference Semifinals against the Utah Jazz. He knocked down all seven of his three-point attempts that night, finishing with 21 points. The Lakers still lost 103-101 and got eliminated by Utah in five games. That performance still stands as the NBA playoff record for most three-pointers made without a miss in a single game.
Kennard's five-for-five does not match Horry's seven, but it puts him in a conversation that almost no Lakers player has been part of in three decades. That alone says plenty.
The Rockets knew Kennard was dangerous and put Amen Thompson, one of their best perimeter defenders, on him for most of the night. Kennard did not care. He was moving off the ball, turning corners, and finding his spots before the defense could even react.
Redick made it clear after the game that Kennard's aggression was exactly what he wanted to see. The coach had been leaning on him more as the season wound down, and Kennard responded by building real confidence in that expanded role heading into the postseason.
Kennard himself said postgame that the extra reps down the stretch of the regular season made all the difference. He came into Game 1 with a clear mindset: stay organized, find the best shot, and attack.
LeBron James was essential too, finishing with 19 points and 13 assists. But Game 1 was Kennard's night. With Doncic and Reaves still out for Game 2, the Lakers are going to need him to show up again, and after what he just did, there is reason to believe he will.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/lakers/onsi as Luke Kennard Did What No Lakers Player Has Done in Nearly 30 Years.
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This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 7:00 AM.