The Los Angeles Lakers announced that center Deandre Ayton was ruled out of Thursday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets due to a knee injury.
Ayton played five minutes to begin the game, going scoreless with two rebounds. He didn’t play the rest of the first half and then Jaxson Hayes started the third quarter in his place before Ayton was eventually ruled out for the rest of the night.
It’s unclear how serious the injury is, but Ayton has dealt with some knee issues in the past, so it certainly will be worth monitoring moving forward. His injury left the Lakers extremely shorthanded in the frontcourt as Maxi Kleber also did not suit up in Denver due to a back issue.
With the way Hayes has been playing in recent weeks, he was already deserving of more minutes, but he will certainly get them now if Ayton is forced to miss time.
The Lakers will be back on the court on Friday night when they host the Indiana Pacers in the second night of a back-to-back. Given the short turnaround, it’s hard to imagine Ayton will be able to play in that one.
Shaquille O’Neal critical of Deandre Ayton
Deandre Ayton’s play has declined in recent weeks, leading Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal to throw some criticism his way on ESPN.
“You know Kenny [Smith] talks about this all the time. If you play hard, you can get things done,” O’Neal recently said. “He’s not Clint Capela because Clint Capela plays hard every game. Clint Capela is a role player, Deandre Ayton is a role player. You’re not going to be on the same team with LeBron and Luka and think you’re going to get shots. However though, all these plays right here are for you. If you just do your job, pick, rebound and run the court, you can get easy buckets. I wish my career was this easy because I played with guys that really used to get me the ball, Penny Hardaway, D-Wade, Scott Skiles. But listen, if you just shut the hell up and do your job and do it all the time and do it consistently, it wouldn’t be a problem. My problem with him is he doesn’t play hard all the time, he don’t play consistent all the time. Six to seven drop offs, that’s 12 points. Run the court a couple of times when your guy shoots a 3, run past him, that’s another six points. There goes 18 points right there. I don’t want to hear no excuse from him, he don’t play hard all the time. He’s the key for them to get to that next level.”
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