The Los Angeles Lakers announced that center Jaxson Hayes has been diagnosed with a left ankle sprain. An MRI confirmed the injury, which occurred during practice Tuesday. Hayes will be re-evaluated in approximately one to two weeks.
The injury comes as an especially unfortunate time considering how thin the Lakers are in the frontcourt with Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt already out. It was recently announced that Wood suffered a setback in his recovery from knee surgery and will miss at least another month.
That leaves Anthony Davis as the lone healthy big man on the roster, and even he is dealing with plantar fasciitis and an eye injury, although he is expected to play through it.
Until Hayes is able to return, two-way player Christian Koloko will likely get playing time as Davis’ primary backup. He got some minutes in the recent loss to the Memphis Grizzlies when Davis was out and looked solid considering it was his first game in almost two years after dealing with blood clots.
Depending on matchups, Lakers head coach JJ Redick could opt to play some smaller lineups with LeBron James or Rui Hachimura at center.
Regardless, this is not an ideal situation for the Lakers as they look to stack up wins early in the season to compete in a loaded Western Conference. The center position was arguably their biggest need going into the offseason and they failed to address it, now paying the price early in the regular season.
If Hayes is only out for a week or so then the Lakers should be able to manage, especially if Koloko is able to provide them with rebounding and shot-blocking off the bench.
Austin Reaves praises Jaxson Hayes
When Anthony Davis left the recent game against the Toronto Raptors after being hit in the eye, Jaxson Hayes was forced to fill in for him the rest of the way and played exceptionally well.
After the performance, Hayes drew praise from teammate Austin Reaves for the job he did.
“I thought Jaxson was amazing tonight,” Reaves said. “From that third quarter on, he probably played one of his best games since he’s been here. Active defensively, being a scorer in the pocket, rebounder. I thought he did a lot of really good things.
“I thought Cam once again stepped up and played really good basketball, but I thought just as a collective group you’re never gonna fill AD’s shoes or one person because he does so much for us. But if we can collectively do it, we can get it done.”
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