The Los Angeles Lakers announced Jaxson Hayes suffered a wrist contusion in the loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Hayes was ruled out for the second half with the injury. He played eight minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds and one steal.
Head coach JJ Redick said after the game that X-rays came back negative for Hayes and that they’ll have another update in the coming days. Redick revealed that Hayes hurt his wrist on one of his dunk attempts in the first half when he got fouled on an alley-oop.
Hayes was having a strong game for the Lakers against the Kings as his size and athleticism gave him some easy baskets. He and Luka Doncic connected on a highlight-reel lob that got the crowd excited, but it appears his aggression backfired.
Los Angeles was forced to go smaller in Hayes’ absence, allowing Sacramento to climb back into the game and take control late. Redick was forced to use Maxi Kleber in relief and the veteran big man largely struggled in his first preseason action. Kleber was late on several rotations and committed too many fouls without contributing anything on the offensive end.
While it’s good news that X-rays returned negative, there seems to be a little doubt as to whether or not Hayes will be available for Opening Night on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors. If Hayes is unable to go, that would leave the Lakers extremely thin in the middle.
Deandre Ayton has proven he can handle a large workload, so he might be forced to play heavy minutes early on if Hayes is forced to miss time. The issue is that the depth behind him isn’t great, so if someone like Kleber is asked to fill in it could come back to bite Los Angeles.
Hayes is a true rim running center who can finish over a defense, so his presence would be missed on the offensive end. Defensively, Hayes doesn’t do much in terms of deterring shots but he’s a decent weak side shot blocker and someone that can even switch onto perimeter players in a pinch.
For now, the hope is Hayes can return sooner than later because the Lakers can ill afford to get off on the wrong foot. Considering it was a preseason game, it’s possible he could have kept going but made sense for the organization to be cautious.
Jaxson Hayes working on getting Slovenian passport to play with Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic and Jaxson Hayes have developed great chemistry on the floor, but it was surprising to hear that the latter is working on getting his Slovenian passport so they can play together next summer.
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