Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes suffered a right ankle sprain on Nov. 10 — his best game of the season in replacement of Anthony Davis — and proceeded to miss the next two weeks. L.A. was extremely thin at center during that time, only having Davis and two-way player Christian Koloko for depth.
Hayes missed six games and finally made his return to the lineup on Nov. 26, when the Lakers were crushed by the Phoenix Suns in the Emirates NBA Cup. Hayes played 17 minutes in the loss and looked relatively strong, but he quickly re-aggravated the injury that held him out.
He went on to miss the next two games while the Lakers ran some further testing. But it is now being reported that Hayes is expected to miss another two weeks with the same injury as before, according to Shams Charania of ESPN:
Lakers center Jaxson Hayes suffered a re-sprain of his right ankle and will miss two to three weeks, sources tell me and @mcten. pic.twitter.com/Qr8GRF3NLD
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 30, 2024
The Lakers confirmed this development, saying Hayes would be re-evaluated in 10-14 days.
This injury serves as another crushing blow to the Lakers rotation. This means that for the next 2-3 weeks, they will once again only have Davis and Koloko as their two big men, barring some type of trade or signing. And while Davis is one of the game’s best players, it is a tall order to ask that he hold down the center rotation with very little help for that long.
The Lakers have gotten used to life without Hayes — or Christian Wood — on some level, as they’ve played eight of the last nine games without either player. However, that is not a sustainable model for long, especially in a Western Conference that has a plethora of elite centers and strong depth at the position.
LeBron James knows Lakers have rebounding problems
The Lakers suffered their fourth loss in five games on Friday night, falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-93. The Lakers held tough with the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed for most of the game, but the Thunder pulled away at the end.
The real difference-maker in the game for the Thunder was offensive rebounds and points off turnovers. Oklahoma City pulled in 15 offensive rebounds compared to the Lakers’ eight. That is seven extra possessions won by the Thunder that L.A. did not get.
It’s little things that often spell the difference between wins and losses for the elite teams in the league, and LeBron James knows that must be improved upon quickly.
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