{"id":13470,"date":"2025-10-20T01:32:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/13470\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T01:32:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T01:32:15","slug":"jaxson-hayes-avoids-serious-injury-adapts-to-luka-doncic-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/13470\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaxson Hayes avoids serious injury, adapts to Luka Doncic passes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lakers<\/a> center Jaxson Hayes<\/a> avoided major injury on his right wrist after a hard fall in Friday\u2019s preseason finale<\/a> as X-rays taken after the game came back negative and an MRI scan revealed what Hayes on Sunday called \u201ca light sprain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 7-footer missed the second half of Friday\u2019s exhibition game with a right wrist contusion after he caught a lob from Luka Doncic<\/a> and was bumped in the air while jamming a two-handed dunk in the first quarter. He stayed in the game for the second quarter and expects to be ready for Tuesday\u2019s regular-season opener against the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a dummy,\u201d Hayes said after practice Sunday of how he got hurt on the play. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have tried to catch myself, should\u2019ve just fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayes scored six points in the preseason loss to the Sacramento Kings, all on soaring dunks. He and Doncic connected on Hayes\u2019 first basket of the game as they were playing together in the preseason for the first time.<\/p>\n

Doncic\u2019s wizardry in the pick-and-roll makes him an athletic rim-running center\u2019s dream as the crafty point guard drops passes from every imaginable angle. But in Doncic\u2019s first training camp with the Lakers since last year\u2019s midseason trade<\/a>, players, including new center Deandre Ayton<\/a> are still adjusting to Doncic\u2019s passes.<\/p>\n

While coach JJ Redick<\/a> said he was happy with the Lakers\u2019 28 assists to 10 turnovers in the preseason game against the Kings, he estimated the team missed seven assist opportunities because of misfired lobs or overly complicated passes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all bigs and point guards, when you start playing with a new big or a new point guard, it\u2019s a learning period,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cYou just learn how they like their screens. You learn how they like you to roll to the hoop. It\u2019s just little things. You learn where they like to pass you the ball. \u2026 It\u2019s just those guys [Doncic and Ayton] are figuring each other out, just like me and Luka did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chemistry between Hayes and Doncic has gotten so strong that Hayes is being recruited to join the Slovenian national team and said he is working on getting a Slovenian passport. He and Doncic are both clients of agent Bill Duffy, and Doncic and his family have been involved in the process for about a year and half, Hayes said.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Luka Doncic looks up the floor while dribbling during a preseason game against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

(Kelsey Grant \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hayes watched Slovenia\u2019s run to the quarterfinals in EuroBasket with a careful eye knowing that joining the team could be a possibility for him in the future. FIBA allows each national team to have one naturalized player, which the international basketball governing body defines as a player who obtains their passport for that country after turning 16.<\/p>\n

Hayes said he had hopes of representing the United States, but USA Basketball does not have open tryouts for senior national teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to just play on that stage,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cSo I\u2019m going do whatever it takes to play on that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

The Lakers cut down their roster to 14 standard contract players on Saturday, waiving RJ Davis, Augustas Marciulionis, Anton Watson and Nate Williams after training camp officially ended. The team kept center Christian Koloko and guards Chris Manon and Nick Smith Jr. on two-way contracts. … Manon was nursing an ankle injury during training camp but was a full participant in practice on Sunday. Bronny James (ankle) and rookie Adou Thiero (knee) went through a modified workout. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers center Jaxson Hayes avoided major injury on his right wrist after a hard fall in Friday\u2019s preseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12136,12135,12132,423,12130,12133,48,52,51,1415,7036,47,50,49,12131,772,9442,777,12134,776,427],"class_list":["post-13470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-chris-manon","tag-crafty-point-guard","tag-first-training-camp","tag-game","tag-hayes","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luca-doncic","tag-pass","tag-player","tag-second-half","tag-slovenian-national-team","tag-sunday","tag-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}